Love Meadowes
by Magical Poof
Summary: Lily's best friend, Dorcas Meadowes, gives James and Co. lessons on how to win Lily's heart for a mere 50 galleons. But the class is harder then she'd thought.
1. Love is like Fireworks

**Love Meadowes: Love is like Fireworks**

Love is like fireworks.

That was what Dorcas Meadowes decided as she saw her boyfriend from last year for the first time as a seventh year Hogwarts student. She'd been looking for her best friend, Lily Evans, but found Dedalus Diggle instead. He was brightly clad in his trademark _purple_ scarf. Not really any house had claim to the color purple. The Gryffindors had red and gold, the Slytherins had silver and green, the Hufflepuffs had black and yellow, and the Ravenclaws had blue and bronze.

Purple was unclaimed territory. So, she supposed that placed him in neutral. But honestly, he could at least show a little respect for the fellow Hufflepuffians! But, as Dorcas stood before him, she decided love was like fireworks.

His brown hair was mussed, she assumed from a hat, since she knew he liked them so much, but wasn't allowed to wear them at school, well, at least not during class. Instead, he kept a collection in his trunk, somewhere. However, Dorcas wasn't allowed to see said collection, for fear of her soiling one of the hats, which wasn't the kindest reason to refuse you girlfriend the privilege to see whatever that other thing he was obsessed about was. Anyway, as Dorcas looked at him, she realized that his nose was too big. His eyes were too brown. His teeth were too large. His hair was too messy.

And so, love was like fireworks, she reasoned. Just when it starts getting exciting, it fizzles out.

Last year she'd been hopelessly in love with him. He'd been funny, and interesting, and rather handsome. She'd been convinced that he was her true love. That she'd spend the rest of her days as Mrs. Dorcas Diggle, it had a nice ring, didn't it? Well, nothing lasts forever.

"Hey, Dory!" Dedalus greeted cheerfully, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

Dorcas frowned. She gently pulled from his grasp and looked him over once more. Nothing. She didn't feel anything. Zip. Nada. The time had come. It was like any other poorly written love fluff crap that somehow passed off as a book.

"Dedalus, can we talk?"

Dedalus's smile faltered, but he nodded uncertainly. "Uh, sure." He replied.

Dorcas smiled and took a deep breath. This was it. She was going to break up with Dedalus.

"Dedalus, it's great seeing you again, but things have changed over the summer, and…" Dorcas cast about for the right words, and Dedalus's shoulders were already slumping. "I think it's time we went our separate ways. It's a new year, and we'll meet new people." She finished with the most clichéd line ever. Well, at least she didn't say the "let's just be friends" line.

Dedalus sighed, shuffling his feet and looking at the ground. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his robes. "Yeah. Alright." He muttered, shuffling away like a wounded animal.

Dorcas sighed and picked up her trunk. Well, at least now he wouldn't bother her anymore. It was freakishly annoying how much he'd pop out of nowhere to walk her to class, or sit next to her. Dorcas felt a twinge of sadness. After all, she'd just broken off with her favorite boyfriend, by far. But, life goes on. She'd find the right guy someday. She'd only had three boyfriends so far, anyway.

"Dory!" Someone called.

Dorcas turned towards the voice and smiled as she recognized a redhead bobbing among the sea of students.

"Lily!" Dorcas called, as her friend came into sight.

They hugged and jumped up and down like small children before releasing each other and grinning.

Dorcas looked at Lily. She was the perfect height for attracting boys. She wasn't too tall, to make them feel small, as men liked to feel like they had power, but she was just tall enough so they wouldn't have to bend over to kiss her. Her hair was a bright, shiny red, and was amazingly strait. She had let it grow out a bit since last year. Now it went to a little past her shoulders. She was one of the prettier girls in school, but would more often be found buried in books, rather then messing with her hair or face.

Dorcas, on the other hand, was not that pretty at all. Especially next to Lily, Dorcas seemed to pale in comparison. Dorcas had plain dark brown hair, which had annoying wave to it, and always seemed to make lumps in her ponytails. She had it cut to her shoulders, but it would puff out and become irritatingly frizzy and ugly if she didn't let it air dry. She was slightly more tanned then Lily, simply because Lily burned so easily. Dorcas was a plain girl. She wasn't ugly, but she wasn't pretty either. She never got much attention, because face it, pretty people were admired at, ugly people were gawked at. But plain people were in between. Like a movie extra in life, the kind no one notices unless they're talking to the movie star.

But she liked to think she had a winning personality.

"How was your summer?" Lily asked brightly. Example of the movie star scenario, while talking with Lily, several boys glanced their way.

"Oh, fine, I suppose." Dorcas replied, shrugging. "It was the same as usual. Trapped at home all day."

Lily sighed. "I'm sorry. If it helps, Petunia was a complete pain all summer. Though, she wouldn't speak to me for half of it. It was still horrible with all the little things she did to show she hated me. Oh, and she brought home some dreadful man, who has somehow become her boyfriend. I think she can do better."

"If you think she can do better, then he must not be much of a man."

"Oh, no, he's _quiet _a bit of man." Lily replied, somehow finding this incredibly amusing.

Dorcas smiled in confusion. Then she glanced at the train. "Come on, let's go get a compartment. We can talk more inside."

Lily nodded, picking up her trunk. Dorcas picked up hers and they headed towards the train. Once inside, they searched around for a while before finding an empty compartment. They put their trunks under their seats and Lily whipped out a huge parchment.

"What's that?" Dorcas asked curiously.

"It's my letter, telling me my Head Girl Duties." Lily replied, emerald eyes darting rapidly down the page.

"Head Girl?" Dorcas, repeated, wide-eyed. She glanced over to where Lily's badge shone in the magic light. Dorcas gasped. "Oh my gosh! Why didn't you tell me? Congratulations!" Dorcas cried, hopping forward to hug Lily again.

Lily let out a muffled protest and Dorcas released her. Lily smiled rather embarrassed and quickly finished reading her letter. Then she stood.

"Sorry, Dory, I have to go to the meeting." Lily informed her. Then she glanced at her watch. "But it's not for a while." Lily sat back down again.

"It's alright. I'm used to it from you being a Prefect." Dorcas replied cheerfully. In truth, she was a bit lonely when Lily left to go to her meetings. After all, Dorcas wasn't captain of anything, nor was she in any clubs. She _was_ rather good at all her classes, but again Lily outshined her.

Lily smiled and suddenly, the compartment door opened. A rather nervous looking Marlene MicKinnon peered in at them. Her blonde hair was long, and perfectly strait, like Liliy's. It formed a curtain around her face until she pushed it behind her ears impatiently. Her face was long and elegant, the kind of face that would look sweet on a young girl, and refined on an old woman's.

Pinned proudly on her chest was a Prefect's badge with a black Raven in mid flight. She smiled at the two girls inside.

"Can I- er- sit with you guys?" She asked timidly.

"Of course." Lily replied, smiling. "I'm glad to see you got made Prefect." Marlene puffed out her chest a bit too proudly for Dorcas's liking. "The meeting-"

"Lily got Head Girl." Dorcas interrupted, jstu t osee Marlene's head deflate a bit. Unfortunately, her head remained the same size, but she expelled her breath.

Marlene's dark blue eyes widened. She peered at the badge pinned to Lily's robes and gasped.

"Congratulations!" She exclaimed. "I wish I'd gotten it! No offense, meant of course. I think you'll be great, though." She added.

"It's alright." Lily replied, smiling, before shooting a glare at Dorcas, who was conveniently looking the other way. "As I was saying," she continued. "The meeting will start soon, so get your stuff ready and we'll go to the Prefects compartment, okay?"

"Oh, oh, yes!" Marlene replied hastily, dragging a large black trunk in, and shoving it under the seat. She flopped down beside Dorcas, who grinned at her.

Marlene looked at Dorcas curiously for a moment before speaking. "I'd have thought you'd have been the Prefect for Gryffindor, with Lily out of the way and all." She informed Dorcas, looking puzzled.

Dorcas felt heat rise to her cheeks with embarrassment. She obviously wasn't smart enough to make the cut. Or maybe Dumbledore had figured that she was only good at her work because Lily helped. But that obviously wasn't true, considering how well she'd done on her O.W.L.s.

"Yeah, well, I guess I just wasn't smart enough." Dorcas mumbled.

"Don't be so insecure. I've told you a million times that you're fabulous!" Lily scolded. "You're brilliant! I'm sure could be a Prefect if you really wanted."

Dorcas rolled her eyes and began to tune out as Lily gathered her breath to deliver her 'you're a perfectly wonderful person and you should stop always putting yourself down' speech. But instead, Marlene spoke, cutting off a rather annoyed Lily.

"The meeting is starting soon." She informed them, peering at her watch. She glanced up at Dorcas, then Lily. After a moment of thought, she spoke again. "I wonder who Head Boy is…" She muttered distractedly.

"I bet its Gideon or Fabian Prewett." Dorcas replied, after a couple seconds of thought. "I heard there was a rumor Dumbledore was choosing someone who wasn't a Prefect. But I heard their older sister, Molly, was a Prefect, she didn't make Head Girl, unfortunately, but it makes it even more likely for them. I heard she got married to some Weasely person. The funny thing is they both have red hair! They're having another kid."

Marlene's face scrunched up in thought. "Why would she want to marry a weasely person? Doesn't that mean they're nasty and sneaky? Or is that ferrety? Oh, I'm so confused now." Marlene sighed.

"No, no!" Dorcas replied hastily. "His last name was weasel or something."

"Ooooh." Marlene replied, nodding. Dorcas doubted her qualifications for Ravenclaw Prefect. Not the sharpest spoon in the knife drawer, eh?

"I suppose Gideon or Fabian might be pretty good," Lily interrupted. "But they kind of come in a package, you know what I mean? Not one without the other. And I hadn't heard about Molly… Wasn't she in seventh year in out first? Anyway, I bet the Head Boy is going to be Remus Lupin." Lily replied instead.

"But we heard that it wasn't going to be a Prefect..." Dorcas replied, frowning.

"You can't believe everything you hear from the grapevine." Lily said smartly.

"Ooh!" Marlene squealed, looking bug-eyed. "Do you really think that it might be Remus? I wouldn't mind having a Head Boy as cute as him!"

Dorcas and Marlene giggled. Lily, on the other hand, looked a bit annoyed.

"Honestly, can you two get any shallower?"

"Oh, Lily, admit it!" Dorcas squealed. "Remus _is_ cute! Or maybe, dreamy! And it certainly helps that he's best friends with James and Sirius! How can you _not_ like him, Lily?"

For some reason Lily started to blush slightly.

"Actually, I think it'd be better if they weren't friends." Marlene objected.

"Why?" Dorcas asked, puzzled.

"Well, since the three best looking guys in Hogwarts are friends, if you happen to be lucky enough to snag a date with them, you'd have to hang out with their devilishly handsome friends! You might be tempted to... You know, cheat. Besides, what if you found out you liked one more then the one you were dating?" Marlene replied, with the air of someone who had thought this out long ago, but never had time to tell anyone.

Dorcas's eyes grew as wide as saucers. "No _wonder_ you're in Ravenclaw! I'd never thought of that!" She cried, though she still doubted Marlene's intelligence a bit. Then again, boys _were_ rather important.

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. Sometimes Dorcas's brain seemed to melt and leak out her ears or something whenever she 'smelled romance in the air' or something of the sort. While Dorcas and Marlene chattered on about something, Lily glanced at her watch.

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "We have to get to the meeting! There are only a few more minutes left!"

Marlene glanced at her own watched before hurrying after Lily out the compartment door. It slammed shut with the force of Lily's shove as she scurried away down the hall.

Inside the compartment, Dorcas was left looking at the closed door, feeling a bit lonely. She sighed and pulled out a book to read. It was one of her favorite kinds, sappy love novels. Currently, Julia was passionately kissing a man she met in the pub a few minutes ago. They'd felt fiery passion the moment their eyes met, and they seemed to fit perfectly in each other's embrace. But suddenly, Ricardo, Julia's over protective boyfriend burst onto the scene. A fistfight commenced.

Dorcas snorted, imagining the delicious guys in deep battle, while stunning Julia stood on the sidelines, looking petrified. Of course, she would not stop the fight by choosing whom she loved more. Neither would she do anything to stop it.

'Maybe she's just hoping one of them will die so she won't have to choose.' Dorcas thought, turning the page to find out the answer. 'And I bet she's related to the one she chooses.'

The random man she'd found in the pub won, and carried her off, leaving Ricardo bleeding in the alleyway. Dorcas's eyes flew across the page, and soon she finished three chapters. Meanwhile, Marlene and Lily hadn't returned yet. Dorcas was starting to get bored, as her predication came true. It turned out the man in the pub was Julia's long lost cousin. Oh, the drama. Yeah. Whatever.

Dorcas could see the fireworks going off, as they shared one, last, forbidden kiss. Of course, every knows they had to fizzle out sometime (like fireworks)… Right? Still, in the world of sappy romance novels, love lasted forever. But in the real world, it lasted a few wonderful moments.

At least for her. Lily seemed to be having better luck. Ever since fifth year, James Potter had been chasing her around like a lost puppy. At every opportunity, he asked her for a date. Around every turn, there he was, waiting to pounce. Dorcas wondered if Lily had a stalker.

Suddenly, the door burst open with a horribly flustered Lily, and a rather confused Marlene entered the compartment. Lily's face was steadily getting redder as she shook her head angrily. Her red hair was flying all over as she ground her teeth.

"I can't believe Dumbledore chose _him_. I mean, what was he thinking, choosing an arrogant, rude, annoying, git like him? He doesn't even take anything seriously! I bet he's going to goof off and flash his badge around while _I_ do all the work!" Lily ranted, stomping back and forth before collapsing on her seat. Marlene sat beside Lily on her seat, patting her awkwardly on the back.

Dorcas stood and folded the corner of her page before tossing her book onto the seat. She wandered over to sit on Lily's other side. She shot a look at Marlene saying 'I'm her best friend, back off, I can handle this' but Marlene didn't quite catch the vibe, since she smiled faintly before looking a bit frightened for Lily.

"What happened?" Dorcas asked, cocking her head at Lily. "Honestly, Lily, if you think it's too much responsibility, I'd be happy to be Head Girl for you." Dorcas joked, but it had no effect to lighten the mood.

"Bloody. James. Potter." Lily gasped as last.

"James?" Dorcas repeated, furrowing her brow, ignoring that Lily had just uttered the first profanity she'd ever heard come from her mouth. She looked at Marlene, who looked a bit frightened.

"Well, when we got there, everyone else was there… And… James was there… You know, as… As _Head Boy._" She hissed, dropping her voice on the last word.

"HEAD BOY!" Dorcas screeched.

Marlene shushed her.

"I don't know _what_ Dumbledore could have been thinking!" Lily exclaimed. "Was he high or something?"

Dorcas cast an amused look to Marlene, who returned it with a confused stare. "Uh, 'high'?" Marlene repeated tentatively, so Lily wouldn't explode on them.

Lily glanced between them and sighed. "It's a muggle thing. It messes you up; some make you see things that aren't real. You know? Drugs?"

Dorcas nodded slightly. Her parents were both muggle-born, but they never talked about drugs very much, well, not true, they'd tell her all sorts of things she she'd forget them. They were very big in the muggle-world at the moment, but wizards found… Other ways to please themselves. Marlene, on the other hand came from a large wizarding family, and was too much of a goodie-goodie to do drugs, anyway. Or maybe she was rather scatter-brained, as it appeared, and had just forgotten what the slang meant.

Dorcas doubted how she could forget. One could walk down the halls and hear students whispering about going off to get high, or _something _of that nature.

"Uhhh…" Marlene replied, looking around rather nervously. "I don't take muggle studies…"

Lily sighed. "Never mind." She said, ignoring the fact that it was taught to them at assembly they'd been required to attend.

"Don't worry, Lily," Dorcas consoled. "I'm sure you can handle him. He'd probably do whatever you wanted if you said you'd go on a date with him."

Dorcas and Marlene broke into muffled giggles as Lily only became impossibly angrier. Suddenly, she sighed, blowing out all her frustrations with a long breath. She flopped back and Marlene barely snatched her hand out of the way in time. Lily closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, scowling slightly.

"Ugh. He's just so… I don't know. He thinks he has to show off and be the biggest prick Hogwrats for me to notice him or something! How would that make me like him?" Lily groaned.

"It works on all the other girls, why should he think it wouldn't work on you?" Marlene chirped, offering what was probably a rare intelligent insight.

"Well, I'm not 'all the other girls'!" Lily snapped. "He should know that by now."

"Maybe he does." Dorcas replied. "He wasn't such a big prick last year as the year before."

The other girls stared at her, and she began to fidget. She pressed her lips together nervously before scuttling as casually as she could back to her seat. She picked up her book again.

"Well, then," She began, trying to look annoyed instead of embarrassed. "I know my stunning beauty and witty remarks have captured you attention, but I would prefer if you wouldn't stare."

They broke from their revive and laughed. Lily grinned at her friend.

"See? You _are_ smart and pretty!"

Dorcas laughed a bit hollowly and scoffed before burrowing herself into her book. Lily talked a bit with Marlene before the pair of girls began having a heated debate about the dangers of having Thestrals on school grounds. Dorcas was listening for a while, but soon they fell into a discussion using words Dorcas had never even heard before.

-------

Dorcas waited with Lily as she supervised the Houses splitting off to their dormitories. Dorcas shifted impatiently from foot to foot. Why were they walking so slowly? Couldn't they speed it up? Lily, on the other hand, did not look bothered in the least by the children's slow pace. Lily smiled widely at them, not hurrying them along, as she should have been. Or at least, what Dorcas would have been doing.

"Who's our Prefect?" Dorcas asked, wondering who had been appointed seventh year Prefect instead of her. It'd bothered her for quite a while, but she didn't want to admit it in front of Marlene.

"Hmm?" Lily asked, smiling at a third year that looked at her nervously before scurrying off with her friends.

"_Seventh year. Prefect. Who?_" Dorcas repeated loudly.

"That'd be Alice Hanser." Replied a deep, mischievous voice, very close to Dorcas's ear.

Dorcas jumped, whirling to face Sirius Black, in all his glory. He grinned at her, and Dorcas looked at Lily, who was already wandered off a bit to talk to a fifth year Prefect in Hufflepuff. Dorcas's dark eyes darted back to Sirius. She gathered herself together.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded. "Shouldn't you be in your dorm or something?"

Dorcas briefly remembered her deeply romantic passions and fantasies. Many of the guys had been as handsome as Sirius; however, they were not horrendously annoying, and best friends with someone she suspected was stalking _her_ best friend.

"Or something." He replied, grinning. Dorcas briefly wondered if he had any Veela blood in him somewhere, because she felt like he was turning on magical charm, when he smiled. It usually sent any girl it was directed at into a full-scale blush, or giggles. Dorcas, however, managed to maintain her glare, even through her reddening cheeks.

"What do you want?"

"To talk."

"Talk?" Dorcas repeated suspiciously.

"Yep." He replied innocently. "You'll be back in a minute. Lily won't miss you, I just want a chat." He grinned at her again.

She managed to glance at Lily; silently hoping she would look over and save her. Alas, no avail. Lily was now talking animatedly with pair of Prefects from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

"Fine." She muttered, and followed a grinning Sirius out of the Great Hall. There, they were ambushed by the last three Marauders. Remus looked rather uncomfortable, Peter looked, well, Peter always look nervous, but he looked a wee bit more nervous then usual. James, on the other hand, was grinning flamboyantly, and high-fived Sirius.

"What do you want to talk about?" Dorcas demanded, ignoring the other boys for the moment and glaring at Sirius.

"We have a proposition for you." Sirius began. "Considering your relationship to Lily, and considering our poor Prongs's lack of relationship, we would like to enlist your services."

"For what?" Dorcas replied, sighing.

"To help Lily fall hopelessly in love with my stunning good looks and charm." James replied, his huge grin still plastered on his face.

"What?" Dorcas replied incredulously.

Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. "They want you to teach James how to be decent so Lily will like him." He informed her patiently.

"No way!" Dorcas snapped.

"Why not?" Peter asked.

"Because! If you were really meant for Lily, then you wouldn't have to have me help you to make her fall in love." Dorcas replied, thinking back on all her years of reading romance novels.

"Sure we do!" James replied.

"James needs all the help he can get." Remus added.

"So, will you help?" Sirius demanded.

Dorcas frowned. There wasn't really anything _bad_ that could happen if she _did_ do this. Maybe James _really_ did like Lily, and Lily refused to see it. It was just like Dorcas's romance novels, but this time, it was real. And reality was scarier.

"Alright. But it'll cost fifty galleons." Dorcas replied hesitantly. Maybe if she made them pay too much, they'd go away. But then again, she seriously needed the money. They'd be awfully boring trips to Hogsmead if she didn't have any. Then again, it would be fun to put years of reading sappy romance novels to the test…

"Fifty!" James exclaimed, looking astounded that she would ask so much.

"I can't make my best friend fall in love with her soul mate without getting something out of it." She added, finally deciding on having a little fun.

"That's a lot." Peter complained. "Maybe we should ask someone else?"

"Dory is Lily's best friend, we can't get anyone better then her. Besides, who else would we ask?" Sirius snapped. Sirius turned to Dorcas again. He turned on the charm and was satisfied to see her face flushed a bit. "Well? Wouldn't it be enough to just help _me_?"

"What?"

"It's a treat to be in my presence, let alone have the honor of assisting Prongs and I, Dory. Be grateful."

"I don't have much free time, to help you. And believe me, you need _lots_ of help. Also, don't call me Dory. Only my friends can call me that. Fifty galleons."

"Thirty." James argued.

"Fifty."

"Forty."

"Fifty."

"Forty-five."

"Fifty."

"Forty-eight."

"Fifty."

"Forty-nine."

"Fifty."

"Fifty."

"Deal."

"Damn!"

"Excellent bargaining skills, Prongs." Remus remarked dryly.

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "Alright. I expect to be paid before the first Hogsmead visit, you know. Whether Lily likes you or not, you _will_ pay me. It's not my fault if you're a prick to the core." She informed him.

"Dory!" She heard Lily call from inside the Great Hall. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

Dorcas turned to the doors of the Great Hall, then back to the Marauders. "Well? Do we have a deal?"

They whispered amongst themselves for a couple minutes. Then James turned to her, grinning. He stuck out his hand.

"Deal."

Dorcas grasped his hand and they shook.

"DORY!"

"See you boys later." Dorcas said, smiling sweetly at them before starting towards the doors. Then she paused and turned back to them. "And James? Lesson one: Boys who date Lily don't say profanities. At least not in front of her." That said, she skipped cheerfully into the Great Hall.

"Where were you?" Lily asked when Dorcas reappeared.

"Earning a few galleons."

* * *

**AN: **Okay, this is the first chapter! WHOOT! Okay, so I don't think anyone else has done this plot, but I'm sure someone has at sometime or another. But I give myself Brownie Points for originality! Anyway, this is mostly through Dorcas's prospective, however, we will get a few others in. 


	2. Love is like Chewed Gum

**Love Meadowes: Love is like Chewed Gum**

**Dislcaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter... It's a shame...

Dorcas sighed. She was sitting beside Lily in Potions class. She was curling a strand of hair around her finger, taking a few notes every now and then, as Lily scrambled to write down everything the professor said. Dorcas admired her hair for a while. She'd let it air dry, even though she hated the feeling of coldness dripping down the back of her pajamas, therefore, her hair was less puffy, and she placed a small Conditioning Charm on it.

Dorcas scribbled down something, not really listening, but knowing that she'd written down exactly what he'd said. Doracs glanced at Lily. That girl would write! She was already almost down with two feet of parchment in her neat, tiny handwriting. Dorcas looked at her messy chicken scratch on her parchment. Her 'a' wasn't connected at the top and looked like a 'u'. Her writing was a horrible cross between cursive and print, while she'd crossed a few of her 'L's and dotted a couple 'e's. Dorcas sighed again.

Her gaze wandered about the classroom. The rest of the students were either taking notes as furiously as Lily, or looking as bored as Dorcas. However, at the back table in the corner, the four Marauders sat. Remus was taking short notes, like Dorcas, while Peter was scribbling furiously, only to stop, peer at his parchment, and scratch it out again. James and Sirius were passing notes and using magic to attack each other with newt eyes.

Dorcas looked back at Lily, and was surprised to notice her staring at the Marauders. Well, it was more like glaring. She wrinkled her nose and scribbled something else down, dipping her quill so deeply at she left blotches all over the page neat page.

Dorcas scribbled a small note to Lily on the corner of her notes.

_What's wrong?_

_Potter and Black aren't paying attention, plus they're attacking each other with newt eyes! I still can't believe Dumbledore made Potter Head Boy!_

_He is rather smart. He's top in Transfiguration. So is Sirius… I wonder if one copies the other..._

_I bet they do. I don't see how either could do well, though. He never pays attention, and I bet he gets all his notes from Remus._

_You know Remus wouldn't do that._

_Yeah… And why aren't you taking notes?_

Dorcas glared at Lily, who was already busy again. She jotted down a couple words from the board and tried to pay attention for the rest of class. But class was extremely boring, as the Floating Potion could only make people float for about five minutes, and had no value whatsoever. Eventually, Dorcas was reduced to drawing stick figures beside of her notes.

-------

"Hey, Dory." James chirped.

"I told you that only my friends can call me Dory." Dorcas growled.

She'd been walking through the Common Room, to get to her dorm and find her books, but the Marauders had stopped her. She sighed. She was supposed to meet Lily in the library to do homework, and she'd gone to get all the rest of her books.

"We're hurt." Sirius replied, looking disgustingly cheerful.

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "What do you want?" She demanded.

"Well, I have successfully gone an entire week without letting a single profanity slip." James began.

"Expect that time in Transfiguration when Sirius put that lizard in your robes." Peter interrupted.

"And that time when Wormtail spilled some spider venom on your essay." Sirius added.

"And when that N-" Remus began.

"Enough!" James snapped. "So I said a few. But Lily didn't hear them, unless she has the ability to read minds, or can hear things from across the school."

"You know, Prongs, you did yell pretty loud and-"

"Well, good for you." Dorcas interrupted, tapping her foot. "But I have to meet Lily in the library and you're making me late."

"Ah, ah, ah." Sirius replied, wagging his finger at her. "You have to help James capture Lily's heart. We deiced to have a lesson right now."

"Why didn't you ask me first?" Dorcas demanded. "You know, I've already got plans so-"

"You won't get fifty galleons." Remus cut in.

Dorcas shut her mouth and frowned. Fifty galleons, or blowing Lily off? She really loved Hogsmead, but it wasn't any fun if she couldn't have a shopping spree. Her parents were expecting her to support herself with the money she'd made from her summer job, but she hadn't admitted to them that she'd used it all to buy a few pieces of jewelry.

"Fine." She muttered at last. "Let me find a first year or someone to tell Lily I'm not coming, okay?"

"Sure." James replied, grinning.

"What about them?" Peter squeaked, pointing a sausage-like finger at a small herd of second years heading towards the portrait hole.

Dorcas shrugged, trotting over to them. "Hey! Are you guys going to the library?"

A small blonde girl looked at Dorcas nervously. "Um, yes." She said.

"Okay, can you tell Lily Evans, the Head Girl, that Dorcas can't come study with her because…" Dorcas thought for a moment. What would be a good excuse that wouldn't get Lily suspicious? Obviously, not saying she had to do homework would do the trick. Maybe… "She was hit by a stray spell while walking by the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, okay?"

A burly boy nodded. "Head Girl. Dorcas. Hospital Wing. Spell. Got it."

Dorcas smiled. "Thanks!"

The second years exited the portrait hole and Dorcas found the Marauders had approached her once more. She frowned at them, as they grinned.

"What?"

"Well, let's get started! Let Lily-ology lessons begin!" Sirius replied, thrusting a fist in the air triumphantly.

"Wouldn't it be better to do it somewhere else? More private, maybe?" Remus objected.

"Why, Moony, you old dog, are you suggesting we go to the R.R.?" James said brightly.

"I suppose that would be adequate." Remus replied.

"What's the R.R.?" Dorcas inquired.

"It's a secret." Peter replied.

"Okay… So why are you telling me?"

"We're not." Sirius said.

"Right. Then how are we going to get there?"

"Just follow us and watch." James replied brightly. With that, they disappeared through the portrait hole.

With nothing else to do, Dorcas followed.

------

Dorcas frowned, her brow furrowed as she watched the boys pace back and forth. Their faces seemed strangely set in concentration. Suddenly, a door appeared in the wall. Dorcas's eyes grew so wide they resembled a fly's.

"What did you do?" Dorcas demanded in shock.

"Sorry, Marauder trade secret!" Sirius denied jubilantly.

Peter pushed back the sleeve of his robe, which was strangely long. He tapped a grubbily finger to his watch, blinking his watery eyes at it. He glanced back up, and no one had paid him any attention.

"Uh, guys, I need to go..." He muttered.

"Alright, have fun, Wormtail." Sirius replied, grinning devilishly. Peter scurried away, glancing over his shoulder at them, looking wistful. Then Sirius made a sweeping bow towards Dorcas, holding open the door for her to enter.

"Where's he going?" Dorcas said curiously.

James waved her question aside. "Tutoring."

"In what class?" Dorcas asked, frowning. "Why aren't you guys helping him?"

"It's Muggle Studies." Remus informed her patiently.

"You don't take Muggle Studies?"

"It's a waste of time." Sirius replied airily.

Dorcas scowled. "I'll have you know, my mother is muggle-born! And Lily's _whole family_ are muggles, you know."

"I knew _that_." James replied. "Are you getting in the room, or are we going to stand out here arguing about the necessity of Muggle Studies all day?"

She sniffed, acting rather annoyed as she stepped into the room. To her surprise it was the exact same color as Lily's eyes. The emerald green seemed to consume the room, side from a rug and the furniture, which was about the same color of Lily's hair.

Dorcas was stunned, fascinated, and deeply unnerved all the same time. She blinked, wandering around touching things, just to see if they were real.

"What _is_ this place?" She asked, once she'd finished inspecting the room.

The Marauders all shared mischievous smiles, but remained silent.

"Well?" She demanded.

"Marauders Trade Secret." They sang.

Dorcas sighed and rolled her eyes. She went poking around a bit more before sitting down on the lounge chair behind a large desk. The boys scrambled over to the desks, much like the ones in class. Dorcas frowned in confusion.

"Well?" James mimicked in a high-pitched tone.

Dorcas scowled. "What do you want me to do?"

"Begin the lesson." Remus said.

"What lesson?"

"You're _supposed_ to be teaching us Lily-ology." James replied. "I'm paying fifty galleons for this, so you better know your stuff!"

Dorcas's scowl deepened. "I was just going to give you tips and hints! I'm not becoming a bloody teacher!"

"If you want those fifty galleons, you will." Remus replied placidly.

Dorcas sighed and twirled around in the chair. Finally, she stood again and came around to the front of the desk. She hopped on it and stared at them.

"Alright." She said at last. "Let's start by seeing how much you know about Lily."

"Oooh! Pick me!" James crowed. He waved his hand in the air like a little kid who was asking to go to the bathroom.

Dorcas raised her brows. "Hmmm… Let's see…" She said slowly, pretending to take a long time to choose, despite the fact that Remus and Sirius seemed to not know anything about Lily, except the stuff that James would gush to them in their dorm.

"Alright, Mr. Potter, tells us what you know about Lily."

Jahis hand and took a deep breath, and then he spoke very quickly, as if trying to fit all of Lily's good qualities into one breath. "Lily is beautiful, kind, nice, not to me of course, but she's still helpful, intelligent, lovely, outgoing, and has the most lovely laugh, and eyes, and hair, and face, and she has really nice lips, too, and-"

"Alright!" Dorcas broke in. James's eyes had come to resemble glazed donuts, plus the last part was a bit too much information for her. "Right then, thank you James. How about you tell me something about her besides the fact that she's a goddess. It greatly lowers my own self-esteem, thank you."

"She's muggle-born." Sirius piped. "That's all I know. No! Wait! She's Head Girl. That too."

Dorcas sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Doesn't she want to become a Healer when she's older?" Remus inquired thoughtfully.

"Yes!" Dorcas cried. "Good job, Remus!"

Remus grinned and James glowered. Meanwhile Sirius had begun to busy himself with scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment he'd drawn form his pocket. Then her grinned and held it up.

"What's that?" Dorcas demanded.

Dorcas squinted at it from her seat and saw Sirius had drawn an ugly stick figure labeled 'Lily'. In somewhat more detail were her 'finer points' each labeled accordingly.

Dorcas gasped and stomped over to wretch the parchment from Sirius's hands. She stared at it before crumpling it up.

"Even if I did agree to do this, I'm not going to stand for you talking, or drawing, about my best friend like a thing!"

"Then why don't you have a seat?" Sirius offered. The others laughed.

Dorcas rolled her eyes and stuffed the wrinkled parchment in the pocket of her robes.

"Obviously, none of you know anything _useful_ about Lily."

"Obviously." Remus remarked dryly.

Dorcas sighed and wondered where she could find some parchment. To her surprise, the drawers in the desk were full to the brim with clean, white sheets. Dorcas drew one and out found an assortment of quills in the next drawer. She quickly created a chart.

"Alright." She began. "I have made a chat for each of you, including Peter. You will fill it out every time you see Lily."

She passed them out. James and Sirius exchanged incredibly amused looks. The parchment read:

_Person(s) Interacting w/ Flower:_

_Topic of Conversation:_

_Class:_

_Flower's Mood:_

_Other:_

_Key: Flower Lily_

"This is just spiffing!" Sirius crowed.

"But why's Lily called 'flower'?" Remus asked.

"Honestly, Remus. Aren't you the smart one here?" Dorcas replied sarcastically. "We can't go around talking about Lily without her knowing, now can we? So, everyone knows what 'Flower' means, right?" Without waiting for an answer, Dorcas waved her wand and the key vanished. "Don't forget to tell Peter." She added.

"Right-o!" James said brightly.

Dorcas rolled her eyes and headed towards the door. "Have fun with the charts. Fill them out and do what you can. I'll be going now-"

"When's our next class?" James inquired brightly.

"Next class?" Dorcas exclaimed.

"Yes. Our deal said you'd teach Prongs how to get Lily." Remus said.

"So?"

"That means you have to keep teaching until I snag her." James replied.

"But- but- I have homework to do! And I can't keep blowing off Lily!"

"Sorry, Love, that's the way it goes." Sirius replied.

"So, how's next Sunday sound?" James asked.

----

Love is like chewed gum, Dorcas decided as she strolled back to Gryffindor Tower. At least, James Potter's love was. It was so old and used, that the flavor had already gone. It'd blown so many bubbles that it didn't even pop anymore. And no one paid attention when it burst anymore. So basically, it'd been reduced to some recycled crap.

And it wasn't going to be recycled again, so it was time to throw it away. But James was as stubborn as a mule. Who wants old gum, anyway?

Aside from her dorky cousin, who collects used gum from under desks. Ew.

----

"DORY!" Lily squealed, running over to Dorcas and flinging her arms around her neck as she entered the Gryffindor common room.

"Dory! Some second year told me you were in the Hospital Wing! They said you were hit with a stray spell. What happened? Are you all right? I went to see you, and you weren't there. I thought maybe you were already gone, so it wasn't so serious. I waited for you at the Library, since I thought you'd come if you were all better. Where were you?"

"Erm…" Dorcas began, wondering how she was going to explain not meeting up with Lily. "I- er… It wasn't a bad spell… It kinda… Just… Uhhh… Oh! I felt tired so I decided to take a nap."

Lily frowned. "Why didn't you stay in the Hospital Wing, then?"

"I-I came back here to sleep! And I'm really sorry… And it was just really bad but-"

"Then where did you just come from?"

"I- Er…" Dorcas began. Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I was… Oh, I umm… Oh, all right, you caught me! I went for a er… Walk! Yeah, walk, outside you know? To clear the mind and stuff… It's really nice out, you know, with the leaves and stuff. So I kinda got tired and… Fell asleep under a tree…"

Lily raised a brow. Dorcas sighed and wondered if Lily would pursue the topic further. To her surprise, Lily just grinned and shrugged it off.

"All right. But you were never one for taking naps, you know."

Dorcas grinned. "My old age is catching up to me. Pretty soon I'll need more wrinkle cream, I'm almost out."

Lily rolled her eyes and they laughed.

"Sooo…" Dorcas began. "Did you get any homework done while you were searching frantically for me?" Even though it was rude, Dorcas hoped she hadn't gotten any done, so they'd be behind together.

"Oh, well I got half way through my Charms essay before I went looking around half the school for you." Lily replied.

"Oh. You want to do the rest now?"

"Now? But it's almost dinner!" Lily replied, looking around at the many students already heading towards the door.

"Well, how about we grab some food and eat it while we do our homework?" Dorcas offered. She knew Lily wouldn't have any problems getting up early to do her homework, but Dorcas's mind would be muddled beyond belief, therefore, out of thinking service.

"We're not allowed to take food out of the Great Hall." Lily protested. "Besides, can't we just do our homework there?"

"You know I can't think with everyone talking so loudly." Dorcas complained. "Besides, someone might start a food fight and ruin our homework!"

"You know that doesn't happen often. Besides, it's only been a few weeks since school started."

"And there hasn't been any food fights. James and his crew are probably cooking something up."

Lily scowled. "Yeah. Something involving innocent students!"

Dorcas frowned. Has she just hurt James's/her cause? She cut a sly glance at Lily as the girl busied herself with collecting her books from the table. Dorcas paused and shifted into "Lily Vision" no matter how much she liked to act self-assured, by wearing strange clothes and shamelessly changing her hair colors, she wasn't all she was cracked up to be. She was horribly insecure with her looks, despite Lily's consoling, in fact, it probably made it worse. Honestly, if a beautiful girl told you that you were pretty, would you believe them? Aside from that, she had a completely dull love-life.

In Lily Vision, she saw the world like on big book. Everything could be figured out and easily categorized just given some thought. Logic had a place everywhere! And in Lily Vision, Dorcas and James's deal was horribly stupid and annoying.

But, she had to remind herself rather sadly, that she was _not_ Lily, and she was Dorcas. Dorcas liked doing stupid things. Why did she have to be Dorcas? Her life sucked. Oh well. Didn't everyone's?

"Come _on_." Dorcas said. "We'll grab some finger food and no one will notice!"

"Dory!" Lily snapped at last. "I'm a _Head Girl_ now! I have to set a good example, that means I can't go around sneaking food and handing in late assignments."

"Fine. We'll do it during dinner." She muttered grudgingly.

Why was it that Lily always seemed to out think her?

----

"How many kneazle hairs do you need to add?" Dorcas asked in between bites of her mashed potatoes.

"Seven." Muttered Lily, who was keeping her parchment amazingly clean of food.

"Right. Okay, what's after that?"

"Four black widows. Simmer for three minutes, stir two hundred and three times."

"Windows… Sitter…" Dorcas muttered, scribbling furiously. "Three hundred and two? Merlin! I'll get a hand crap!"

Lily sighed and set her own parchment aside. She picked up Dorcas's and looked it over. She pulled out some red ink and a fresh quill.

"Hey! I'm not done yet! Don't read it!" Dorcas screeched.

"Oh, hush." Lily replied, scratching something out.

Dorcas pouted, but took the opportunity to eat. Lily was immersed her correcting Dorcas's essay, and didn't notice when a note zoomed across the room and Dorcas rebounded on the back of the head, into her mashed potatoes.

Dorcas looked at it and glanced around curiously. At the other end of the table, the four Marauders were grinning. Dorcas sighed and unfolded it.

_Please tell the Flower that she has a bit of pudding in her lovely hair._

_XOXO Your Loving Students Who are Eternally Grateful_

_(Except Sirius, who is too damn hott for that)_

Dorcas frowned and looked at Lily, while stuffing the note in the pocket of her robes. There was nothing in her hair… Oh Merlin.

Lily screamed and jumped up from her seat as Peeves poured pudding on to her head. The poltergeist disappeared, cackling wildly. Lily's face grew steadily redder as she yelled after the long gone ghost. Meanwhile, the rest of the Great Hall had broken into hysterics. Including the Marauders.

Dorcas snatched up their essays, which had been spared of pudding, then helped Lily mop up a bit of the pudding. Then she steered Lily out of the Great Hall.

----

Lily gave the password to the Head's bathroom. Dorcas and Lily both washed out her robes and left them to soak, before Dorcas helped Lily wash out her hair.

"If Peeves wasn't already dead, I'd kill him!" Lily snarled, still in a sour mood.

Dorcas sighed and dunked Lily's head under the faucets again.

"There, there, dear." Dorcas consoled. "Besides, you can't kill him. You'd be charged with murder."

"Under provocation!"

"If it makes you feel any better, I bet he was killed under the same circumstances. Maybe they wanted him to go away."

"Didn't work though." Lily muttered.

"Lily, what did I tell you about being in a bad mood all the time? You should think positive! Like me!"

"Oh yeah… You know my dad?"

"Hm… I think I've heard of him."

Lily rolled her eyes and continued. "Well, he showed me this article from some research department. It was called 'Are the Happy _Too_ Happy?' and it talks about being happy all the time is like an imbalance in the brain, like depression."

Lily giggled and Dorcas laughed.

"Well then, maybe I do have a problem. I should take depressants so I can be like you." Dorcas offered.

"You've _always_ had a problem!" Lily said, still giggling.

"_A_ problem? I thought I had more than one…"

"You do."

"What little brain I have left is starting to fry. You're so confusing."

"Aren't I?"

"That's what I said."

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. Dorcas (feeling pleased that she'd restored Lily's good mood, for the most part) was wringing out Lily's robes.

"Feeling better?" Dorcas asked.

"Yeah. I guess. Are our essays alright?"

"Yep. Snagged them on the way out."

"I'm sorry I go you into this." Lily sighed.

"Don't be silly. I have to put up with this, or else who will do my homework?"

Lily grinned at her. "Yes. I'm your homework heroine."

"Nu-uh! You're my best friend!"

"Who does your homework?"

"That's what best friends are for!"

"Touché!"

A comfortable silence fell between them, aside from the trickle of water as Dorcas rung Lily's robes out. There was a faint splashing as Lily began to dry her hair.

Dorcas still didn't look up from the robes as she spoke. "Sooo… Do you like James?"

"WHAT?"

**A/N:** I really disliked this chapter; it was very boring and was mostly a transition chapter. Also, I had to get rid of the song lyrics because FF has some new stupid rule that you can't have them.

**Mangamaniac: **Thanks! But I'm afraid that chapters won't be getting any shorter. I don't know about you, but I often feel disappointed when people post short chapters, because you always have to wait so long for that little itty bit. However, if you're having trouble reading the small font, up in the right hand corner (at the top of the site) there's a little thing that looks like this: B s : A A A. The B makes the font larger, and easier to read if you need to make it larger.

**Justdream: **Thanks! I really like the plot I've come up with, but… That's just me.

**Auburgine: **I know what you mean. I _hate_ those perfect, lovely, smart, amazing best friends Lily has, who, somehow, always managed to end up dating Sirius. I can proud to say that this story will be (almost) cliché free! And, as much as I'd like to claim it as my own, I did not make up the name Dorcas. In book five, Moody mentions that Dorcas Meadowes was killed by Voldemort himself, while showing Harry the picture of the Order.

**Mrs.KristinePotter: **I'm sorry this chapter wasn't as interesting. I tried. But this is a _very_ transition-y chapter.

**Iamari: **Oh… Gracias (which is thanks to any of you non-Spanish speakers out there)

**Kick Ass Ass Kicker: **I'm glad people are so excited about my story! This is my baby, and I've dropped everything else to work on it.


	3. Love is like an Airplane

**Love Meadowes: Love is like an Airplane**

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter is still not mine….

The two friends walked down the halls towards Gryffindor Tower, dinner had most certainly ended by that time.

"How could you ask me if I like _Potter_!" Lily hissed at Dorcas.

She shrugged. "I dunno. I just wanted to know."

"He's been practically _stalking_ me! And that arrogant prick is always showing off on his stupid broom or hexing people in front of me!"

"Don't combust, Lily-bo-billy, I just wanted to know. He _is_ pretty cute, you know." Dorcas added. "Not everyone has the privilege of having one of the hottest boys in school stalking them."

"Beauty is only skin deep."

"But he seems to really like you." Dorcas complained.

"But I seem to really _not_ like him."

"Seem?"

"AGH! I just plain don't like him. Can we change topics now?" Lily asked, sighing.

"Alrighty! How are those warts on your finger you had last year? I knew it was true when Daniel Marccabs called you a worry wart in first year."

"DORY!"

----

"Bad news, gang." Dorcas announced once they'd all settled into the 'R.R.' as the Marauders continued to call it, further annoying Dorcas, who wanted to know what it stood for.

"You've decided that I'm hotter then James, and therefore would be a more compatible match with Lily?" Sirius joked.

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "It's bad enough you drag me out here, but you could spare me the corny jokes."

"Oh good, I much prefer the cheesy ones, anyway." Remus said gleefully.

"If Sirius had an off switch, believe me, we'd turn him off." James replied.

"What's the bad news?" Peter asked, he was sitting on the end, beside Sirius, and was feeling vastly excluded.

"I'm afraid Lily completely loathes you, James."

"Oh, congratulations!" Sirius cried. "You've moved up from 'hated with the heat of a thousand burning hair curlers' to 'loathed like five hundred toads in your hairbrush'!"

"I don't see much of a difference." Remus replied, raising his brows. "Considering James uses neither curlers nor hairbrushes."

"Hey!"

"Actually, he has a set of hair curlers in his trunk…" Peter began.

"Hey! I told you guys why I had them!" James objected. "I-"

"Ooookay!" Dorcas interrupted. "As fascinating as this is, how about we move along?"

"Brilliant idea!" Sirius said. "But don't worry, Prongs, we'll get back to those curlers eventually."

"So, have you all been keeping up your charts?" Dorcas asked, straitening her papers and trying to act professional.

"Of course Professor Meadowes." James replied.

Dorcas raised her brows. "Alright…. You!" She said suddenly, pointing at Remus.

"Me?"

"Yes! Collect the papers!"

The others snickered as Remus got out of his seat and picked up the other papers before tossing them to Dorcas. Dorcas pretended to look through them about five times, pursing her lips.

"Good, all of them are here."

Dorcas turned to a large calk board on one side of the room. She frowned and muttered a spell softly. Then she tapped a paper twice with her wand, and did the same to the board. Suddenly, the words sprung up on the calk board. She did the same to all the papers until they were neatly lines up along the board.

"Alright, kiddies." Dorcas began, looking over the charts. "See any patterns?"

"I do." Peter squeaked.

"Okay, shoot."

"Almost all of the conversations, that aren't about school, are with you."

Dorcas frowned looking at the charts again. It appeared that Peter was indeed correct. It never really occurred to Dorcas how little they branched out, even if Lily was a social butterfly.

"Alright, anything else?"

"Lily hates Transfiguration?" Remus offered.

Dorcas shrugged. "Yeah. A bit."

"How about the fact that Lily is the most gorgeous creature on earth?" James offered.

Dorcas sighed and rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks, way to make a girl feel good about herself." Dorcas sighed again and pulled her legs onto the desk and crossed them. "Alright, let's move on, shall we? Let's discuss… Your behavior."

"What's wrong with out behavior?" Sirius demanded in mock outrage.

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "Oh, nothing. Aside from the fact that you _laughed_ when Lily was soaked in pudding yesterday!"

"It was funny." Peter protested.

"I know it was." Dorcas snapped. "But it wasn't for Lily! If you want to get on her good side, you don't laugh when she's humiliated! You _kindly comfort _her. Get it?"

"So, you're saying that next time, you want me to take her to the Head's washroom and clean her hair for her, instead of you?" James asked, grinning.

"That's exactly what I'm saying!"

The four boys laughed.

---

Dorcas walked down the halls beside Lily. She couldn't help but try looking for the Marauders, to see if they were secretly stalking them, still. Some of the conversations they'd mentioned on their charts had rather bothered Dorcas. She'd had those in private with Lily! Not that there was anything very embarrassing about them, but she could have sworn they'd been alone.

"Who are you looking for?" Lily asked, cocking her head. "Dedalus?" She offered, grinning.

Dorcas scowled. "Eww… No. I broke up with him, remember? I told you on the train."

"Oh, yeah." Lily replied off handedly. "I forgot. He was a nice guy, though. You should have stayed with him."

"I happen to take great interest in _your_ love life. The least you could do is pay attention to mine." Dorcas replied, acting horrified.

Lily grinned. "Sorry, I know you pour over your notes wondering where my relationship with Nathaniel, or Edward, or anyone else had gone wrong."

Dorcas looked at her in mock out-rage. "I do not _pour_, merely examine thoroughly. Besides, they were nice fellows, too. And then you up and dump them on their rumps for no plausible reason."

Lily shrugged. "There were nice, you're right. I probably should have come up with a better reason, but I just didn't find them interesting. As much as it makes me sound like a whore, I have to say that I was bored with them."

Dorcas raised her brows and wiggled them. "Lily, when did _you_ become a woman?"

"You know very well that I got my period when I was fourteen."

Dorcas sighed. "You're no fun."

"Then why must you insist on being my best friend?"

"Because I am."

Lily rolled her eyes and stepped into the Defense Against the Dark Art classroom. They both sat at their desk in the middle. At the front was no good because Professor Werllis had a tendency to make the 'front rowers' to come up and help give an example. While in the back, you couldn't really hear anything with the Marauders joking about and making a mess.

Professor Werllis was actually a very good teacher. He kept his classes interesting and informative. He could be strict if he wanted to be, but, unlike McGonagall, he'd learned long ago to just ignore the Marauders and let them goof off in class.

Today, though, they appeared to be extra annoying. James and Sirius were having a contest on who could shoot more small balls of paper at each other, occasionally hitting the unfortunate people forced to sit near them. Remus was taking notes studiously, as usual, but Peter was cheering for… Well, Sirius _and_ James, depending on who was winning. Fair-weather friend, eh?

Dorcas sighed and tapped her quill absent-mindedly to her parchment, leaving a dark blob in the middle of her heading. She glanced down at her paper, and growled in frustration. Then she sighed and tapped her quill to the side of the ink well, to get any excess ink off. Lily, of course, took no notice, as she was absorbed in taking down every single word, cough, sneeze, um, and sigh.

Dorcas sighed again. She could have sworn that Lily wrote it down.

----

Dorcas walked down the hall with Lily. She checked her watch. They still had about ten minutes before their next class, Ancient Runes, because someone has spilled dragon blood in potions and melted half the cauldrons and a lot of people's shoes. Dorcas couldn't wait for Ancient Runes, though, it was her favorite subject. Mostly because she was the top of the class, though. For some reason, the words seemed to make sense, and it was one of the few, well, only subject that Dorcas helped _Lily_ in. And Dorcas was strangely good at the most pointless subject at Hogwarts. Divination. Lily suspected it was because old Professor Sinnisil liked Dorcas because her first name was Dorria, also nicknamed Dory. Though, Dorcas had to admit that she _liked_ Divination, and was pretty sure she'd seen a few things that had come true.

Anyway, they were walking down towards the Ancient Runes classroom. They passed the large oak doors of the Great Hall, and suddenly there was a burst of laughter in the otherwise peaceful area. Many people turned to look curiously towards the cracked doors of the room. Dorcas frowned, as did Lily.

"What's going on in there?" Lily demanded.

Dorcas shrugged. "I dunno. I'll look."

Dorcas dragged Lily over to the door and peered in through the crack. Lily squirmed and tried to push Dorcas aside so she could see too. Finally, she gave up and left Dorcas look.

"What is it? Is someone doing something?"

Dorcas looked inside and gasped. Severus Snape was hanging from his pants on one of the chandeliers in the Great Hall, while James, Sirius, Peter laughed. Remus looked rather guilty, and remained buried in his book at the table. Meanwhile, assorted students were laughing, even a few Slytherins.

"What is it?" Lily insisted.

Dorcas glanced at her. If Lily knew James was tormenting someone, her cause would be ruined.

"No, it's nothing. I don't see anything, someone probably just told a really good joke."

Lily blinked and shrugged. "If you say so. Are you sure, though?"

"Yeah, nothing looks out of the ordinary-"

There was another burst of laughter.

"I'm going to look, just in case-" Lily began, but Dorcas cut her off.

"No need! I'll go see what's so fun! Just… Just stay here, okay? No, wait, how about you go up to class and save us some seats, huh?"

Lily blinked. "No, it's alright, I'll go look and you can go save seats. You're the one that wanted to go early, anyway, you I don't like it much."

Dorcas shook her head. "No, no." She insisted as the laughter continued. "You go on up, I'll check, besides, I, uh, left my… Timeline for History of Magic in there!"

"Um, okay." Lily replied hesitantly.

Dorcas grinned and Lily and pushed the door open just enough for her to slip though. She shut it quickly and loudly.

The Marauders were looking at her with slightly amused expressions. James lazily spun his wand and Snape did a back flip in the air. Sirius laughed, and Peter joined in heartily.

"Come to see the show, Dory-bo-bory?" Sirius asked.

Dorcas glared at them. She stalked right up to them and said rather casually, "You're lucky I'm not Lily, or she'd be handing out detentions for you all, and reducing you to 'despised like one thousand burning toads' or whatever it was Sirius said."

"Actually, Dory dear, it was 'hated with the heat of a thousand-'" Sirius drawled.

"Who cares?" Dorcas demanded, sighing. "Anyway, you know Lily hates it when you torture people. So stop it."

James raised his brows. "Lily's not around, though. So why can't I? The slimy bastard deserves it anyway."

"What for?"

James traded a look with Sirius. Peter glanced uneasily at Remus, who had gone a bit more pale then usual. Suddenly, Dorcas felt out of the circle.

"Let him go, James." Remus commanded.

James released his spell and Snape dropped from the lessened height of six feet. Then the Marauders turned and stalked away. Dorcas blinked, standing in the hall with great confusion. Did they actually… _Listen_ to her?

-----

"So, are you going to stop tormenting the Slytherins?" Dorcas demanded at the next meeting.

The Marauders all exchanged different expressions. Dorcas wasn't sure what to make of it. Remus seemed nervously wanting to do what Dorcas had said, while Sirius looked dead set against it. James looked troubled, and Peter was looking hopefully between his friends, as if expecting to find the answer written on the their faces.

"Well…" James began. "We'll stop… Unless they deserve it."

Sirius frowned. "When do they not?" He demanded.

"We could really get in trouble-" Remus began.

"But what if they deserve it? Snape deserved it after what he said about you, Moony!" Sirius snapped. "That slimy git had no right! And jabbing at you about that-" Sirius broke off rather quickly as James gave him a swift kick in the shin. "Bloody hell, Prongs!"

Dorcas stared at him. The others did too. After a moment of silence, Sirius seemed to calm down enough to realize what he'd said.

"Er… What?" Dorcas asked.

"Nothing." James said quickly. Too quickly.

"No, really, what?" Dorcas insisted.

"Nothing." Peter confirmed.

Did they not realize it only made her more curious? But none of them seemed to be giving in any time soon, so she dropped it for the moment.

"James." She said suddenly, rounding on him.

He looked a bit startled. "Uh, yeah?"

"I was thinking, and we needed to come up with a plan, you know, steps for 'winning the Flower's heart'."

"Uh, okay."

"So, since you've already won so many hearts, I'll need to know which ones."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"I want a list of your past girlfriends, James."

"Erm, and what will you get from with information again?" Remus said, sounding a bit confused.

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "Okay, basically, I want to know what they thought was so appealing about you."

"Ahhh…" Sirius said, eyes twinkling. "Well, that may take a while. Sit with us at dinner and we'll give you the list."

"Has he really dated that many people?"

"Only topped by the best." James said, sounding rather proud.

"By the best, he means me." Sirius explained, earning a glare from James.

----

"Hey! Dory!" Lily greeted, waving at Dorcas as she entered the Great Hall. Lily was sitting close to the end of the table, and had been previously chatting with a fifth year girl. Dorcas smiled at Lily, silently annoyed at how outgoing Lily could be. Dorcas barely ever spoke with any girl that wasn't in their year.

"I saved you a seat!" Lily chirped.

Dorcas smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, I promised someone I'd sit with them."

Lily looked surprised. "Oh, well, who? Where are they?"

"Erm, um, Remus, he asked me to help…. Him… In… Ancient Runes!"

Lily blinked. "I don't think he takes that…"

"Yes, he, uh, doesn't! But- He… Was interested and asked me to tell him about it a little."

Lily shrugged and smiled. "Alright, see you at the dorm, then."

Dorcas smiled nervously and scuttled off towards the Marauders. Peter and Remus sat across from James and Sirius. Remus scooted over a bit and Dorcas managed to squeeze in next to him.

"So, got the list?"

"'Course I do." James replied. He drew out a foot and a half long parchment. The names were written in a tiny neat print, only obtained by Remus or Lily (it was obviously Remus in this case). They were two order columns on both sides. Dorcas gaped.

"You've dated all these people?" Dorcas gasped.

James shrugged. "Some of them were only one date. It took two classes for us to think of them all. I still think I missed some from fourth year."

Remus glanced at the parchment. "I think Sirius put down some of his own girlfriends."

"Sirius!"

"I swear, mate, they're all yours! Besides, Moony, why'd you write them if you think they're mine?"

"I can write down what you're saying without having to actually listen, you know." Remus said calmly.

"If they're all Prongs's, then what's Hestia Jones doing on here?" Peter asked, raising his brows.

James scowled. "Sirius, you dated that hog?"

Dorcas glowered at him, but James didn't notice. Hestia happened to be a bit on the chuddy side, but there was no need to insult her! In her brief encounters with Hestia, she'd been perfectly nice and sweet girl.

Sirius shrugged. "Well, she does have nice hair, you know."

Dorcas blinked. She'd thought Sirius was into bottle blondes that burned your eyes from the brightness of their hair, despite the fact that their ordinary brown roots were showing. Oh yes, and girls with long rich locks that cascaded down their shoulders like a waterfall. Hestia, on the other hand, was a brunette with a faint blonde tint. Her hair was to just above her shoulders, and it was a messy frazzle around her head.

"You _like_ her hair?" Dorcas demanded.

Sirius shrugged. "When she straitens it, it's very pretty. And she always does it for me."

"You only went out with her once." Replied Remus, who had already begun eating.

"And what a lovely one time it was." Sirius said in mock wistfulness.

"Right. Anyway, _most_ of these girls I've dated." James said, thrusting the parchment at Dorcas.

"Great!" Dorcas said, eagerly looking over the list. She wasn't surprised to find Celica Ranalon's name written in neat scrawl at the top.

---

Dorcas had passed Celica a note during History of Magic, which was the only class she still had with the girl. Dorcas wondered why Celica was even taking History of Magic. Her ambition had, apparently, been to become a famous robes designer.

Drocas checked her watch. She'd already been waiting ten minutes. She sighed and leaned against the bookshelves. Suddenly, the doors burst open and the Hufflepuff flounced inside.

She was a sparkling blonde beauty. She had big boobs, big hair, big butt, big hips, and a small brain. She was like a Barbie, except that she didn't fall over because her proportions were physically impossible. Celica glanced around a couple times before spotting Dorcas. Instantly, she swaggered over.

"What do you want? I can't be here all day, you know. I hate the library." Celica announced loudly. Madam Prince glared at the girl over her spectacles.

Dorcas sighed and rolled her eyes. She led Celica over to a table and sat across from her.

"Okay, here's the deal. I want to know everything you liked about James."

"Potter?"

"Is there any other?"

"Well, there was, like, this one, who was here, like, when we were in first year, and I kinda, like, had a crush on him, but he was like, a seventh year, and that's totally like, ew, you kno-"

"As fascinating as that was, could you please tell me what you like about James _Potter_?"

"Why?"

"I'm setting up a blind date." Dorcas lied, but took the idea into consideration.

"Oohhh. Who's the lucky girl?"

"Just tell me about James." Dorcas said, pulling out a small notebook and wetting her quill.

"He's a fab kisser. And his hair is just, like, sooo soft. It's like velvet! Or rabbit's fur!" She cried excitedly. Suddenly, she dug into her tiny pink purse and drew out a small strip of rabbit fur. She held it out to Drocas, who realized it was actually a scarf.

"Feel this! It's _just_ like James's hair!"

Dorcas raised her brows and pushed it away. "Right. Thanks, it's okay."

Dorcas watched Celica stuffed the scarf back in her tiny pink purse, and she wondered how Celica had managed to even fit it in there in the first place. What _else_ was she keeping in that thing?

"So, you need anything else? 'Cause, me and my girls are gonna, like, jet, 'kay?"

Dorcas raised her brows. "Right. Okay, you can go." She replied, glancing down at her three bullets on the page.

Once the blonde had flounced out of the doors, after stopping to flirt with several boys, Dorcas picked up the parchment with the list of James's past conquests. She drew a small check next to Celica's name and glanced at the next one. It was going to be a long day. Good thing it was Saturday.

----

Once the last brunette with long legs sauntered out of the library, Drocas reviewed her notes.

_- Good Kisser_

_- Soft hair (velvet/rabbit fur)_

_- Good shag_

_- Good Reputation_

_- Popular_

_- Quidditch Captian_

_- Hott/Cute_

_- Friends with Sirius(?)_

In short, to say, it was not very informative. All three hundred and sixty-four girls had said something along the same lines.

Dorcas looked over the list once more, just to make sure she hadn't forgotten anyone. It'd taken about two weeks to locate and interview all the girls, but she'd managed it, and felt it was a waste of her time. She noticed that she'd skipped over Hestia Jones. She frowned. They'd said that Sirius had dated her, once, at least. Dorcas couldn't help wondering why.

Hestia was a quiet, timid girl. She seemed self-conscious a lot, and buried herself in her books as refuge. She was perfectly nice, but shy. Dorcas rather liked her. So why on earth would Hestia Jones date Sirius Black, even if it had been a one-time thing? Maybe to boost her self-esteem? Sirius dated sluts, whores, or anyone who didn't mind being on his rotation list.

Maybe Dorcas would look into it in during her free time. But next on her list, was to find out why Lily disliked James so much.

---

"Hey, Lily!" Dorcas chirped, sitting beside Lily in the commons.

Lily glanced up from her homework to acknowledge Dorcas's presence, and then dove back into her mountain of parchments.

"Can I ask you something?" Dorcas continued.

"You just did." Lily replied, flipping open a book.

"Something else."

"Sure."

"Why do you refer to James and Sirius, Remus, and Peter by their last names?"

"I don't call Remus by his last name." Lily commented.

"Yeah, whatever. But what about the others?"

Lily shrugged. "First names is too personal, and I guess you just call your enemies by their last names, you know? Besides, her doesn't deserve to be called by his first name, anyway."

"You mean James?"

"No I mean Dumbledore." Lily replied sarcastically. "Yes, I mean James."

"Why not Sirius or Peter?"

"Well, them too, but just, not as much." Lily added, flipping through the pages of her book.

"Why?"

"Why not?" Lily demanded, starting to become irritated with Dorcas's interrogation.

"Okay, okay. But why not Remus?"

"I don't know. He's _nice_ and not at all self-absorbed; he's really sweet and smart, and-" Lily broke off abruptly, diving back into her book, as if she'd just discovered something very interesting. Dorcas raised her brows skeptically, and noticed Lily's face was a few shades redder then usual.

"And?" Dorcas prompted.

"And nothing. Besides, why do you call them by first name, anyway? Since when do you care so much, all of a sudden." Lily snapped.

Dorcas blinked, shrugging. Lily had changed it around so Dorcas was the one being questioned. Dorcas felt like there was something big she was missing out on. She'd play along, for now. "I don't know. I call everyone by their first name, I guess."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Whatever." Then she dove back into the reassuring pages of her book.

"Love is like an airplane." Dorcas proclaimed thoughtfully. "There are ups and downs, and a whole lot of turbulence."

Lily glanced at Dorcas again, looking puzzled. "Where did _that_ come from?"

Dorcas blinked at Lily. "Did I say that out loud?"

**

* * *

**

AN: Yeah, another not-so-great chapter at the beginning at least. I don't know what was wrong with me. Anyway, I re-read chapter two and found a gazillion typos. It must have been an off day. I fixed them. Okay, now to the next chapter!

**Waterfaerie15:** Thanks, I like being original. I like reading things with a twist on them that make them interesting.

**Obsessivescottichdemocrat: **I'm sorry if I typed your name wrong, it's dreadfully long. Anyway, I'm here to entertain. Thank you for adding me to your favorites!

**Lovin'it:** Thanks! Don't worry, I will. I have no intention of shortening the chapters.

**Mrs.KristinePotter:** Ooh! All my fans are making me feel so loved! Thanks for adding me to your favorites list too! I like the longer chapters, too. And my next update is… Now! Yay.


	4. Love is like a Mirror

**Love Meadowes: Love is like a Mirror**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter, got it yet?

Now, enter public enemy number one. Okay, _female_ public enemy number one. At least, on Lily's list, James and his crew were the top.

Patsy Parkinson. She was a Slytherin, the same year as Lily and Dorcas, and she had a brother who graduated three years ahead of them. Patsy was known as the queen bee of the Slytherins, and queen slut of everyone else in different houses. She was a busty, dark-haired beauty. She was perfection in practically every way, aside from the brains department. Not to say that she was stupid and air-headed, like ditzy Celica, no, she was full of snappy remarks and comebacks, she was sly and nasty as any Slytherin, but she wasted her potential on memorizing make-up tips and hairstyles. Though, it was said that she knew quite a few dangerous curses. No one doubted where she'd learned those from.

Patsy was a kindred spirit with a certain cousin of Sirius Black's. Not to say they were friends. While Bellatrix was wildly popular, Patsy was known for having no friends, and still acting like she was queen of the world. Bellatrix was less well known of her conquests. Sure, many boys would drool after her, but she rarely strayed from her long-time boyfriend, Rudolfus LeStrange, who graduated two years ago. Bellatrix seemed to have a habit of picking on Alice Hanser and Frank Longbottom (who had recently graduated a year ago) for unknown reasons, though she didn't really had a chance to bother Frank, as he had graduated last year.

Meanwhile, Patsy contented herself with Dorcas and Lily.

No one knew why the queen bitches chose them as their targets. Rumors went about saying that they were jealous of their intelligence and reputations. Lily was undoubtedly a virgin. And Dorcas had to say that Alice seemed pretty innocent, too. Dorcas was a virgin, of course, because she was saving herself for 'the one.'

Anyway, Patsy swaggered down the hall towards Dorcas and Lily, who were heading to Charms. Patsy somehow managed to swing her hips while walking fast enough to catch up to Lily and Dorcas. Now, Patsy was a weird sort, but still wasn't on to be taken lightly. Patsy draped her arms on their shoulders, leaning in between them.

She looked at them both, grinning wickedly. "You won't believe what a good shag Slytherins are, you should try them sometime." She said companionably, as if she were confiding in her best friends.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Lily replied icily.

Patsy pursed her lips in a pout. "That's an awfully cold shoulder you've got there. I'm sure James would be more than happy to warm it up for you." She smiled again. "But I forgot, Lily's a little virgin. Oh well. James shouldn't bother with you, virgins are always horrible shagmates."

"That's nice, Patsy, but how about you get to your class?" Dorcas asked, her voice completely neutral.

Patsy was one of those people that ruined it for James, even though she was one of many. She was one of those people that never believed in a _real_ relationship. But then again, Bellatrix seemed to be having a pretty loyal relationship. Of course, whenever the queen bitches were concerned, rumors were abundant.

Patsy smiled sweetly again. "M'kay! See you again, later, 'kay guys? Se-e ya!" She sang, disappearing down a corridor.

Dorcas looked at Lily and raised a brow. An unfortunate Hufflepuff walked by, and Dorcas took the opportunity to 'accidentally' knock into him, and rub her shoulder off on his robes. She always felt slimy after Patsy touched her, and felt the need to wipe it off on someone. Poor Hufflepuff. He didn't know what Dorcas had wiped on him.

Patsy flounced down the hall towards Bellatrix, who was currently bothering Alice, the sensitive blonde was in near tears. Or so it appeared. Dorcas couldn't tell from down the hall whether the red blotches on her face were from anger or tears.

Patsy didn't walk with Bellatrix, simply raised a brow and turned away, as if disgusted by Bellatrix's display.

The Black girl sneered at Patsy in return.

-------

"Dorcas, you wanna sit by the lake and study for Transfiguration before dinner?" Lily asked.

"Oh, er, sorry, I can't." Dorcas replied uncertainly.

Lily looked a little disappointed, but smiled anyway. "Oh, okay! I'll see you later. Maybe next time?"

"Uh, yeah." Dorcas replied, wondering when she'd have free time again. "I'll try to save you a seat at lunch, okay?' She offered.

Lily brightened a bit. "Alright. I'll see you later, then!"

Dorcas turned away and began to head to the corridor of the 'R.R.' room. She paused at the wall, seeing no door. Obviously the Marauders had not arrived yet, so she was stuck outside, still. Dorcas sighed.

She waited for a full ten minutes before she began pacing back and forth, her mind straying from one thing to another. Finally, she began wondering where the door was. And suddenly, as she turned around again, there was the door.

Dorcas blinked curiously and pulled it out. It was the same door, however, the room was completely different… In fact… Dorcas wasn't sure it really was a room.

The walls were covered in different doors, all different sizes, shapes, and colors; even the ceiling and floor had doors on them. Dorcas stared.

She wandered into the room and screamed as a trapdoor fell out from underneath her. Suddenly, she was falling back into the room, from a door on the ceiling. She landed on the ground and quickly scrambled towards the wall. She glanced at the doors along the walls, and it occurred to her that none of the doors looked like the one she'd come in through. Oh Crap.

-------

About twenty minutes later, a door opened and the curious faces of the Marauders looked around in the room. Dorcas, meanwhile, sat huddled in a corner, nearly in tears. Her robes were singed and ripped from a few nasty spells hiding behind the doors.

"What did you do?" Peter asked, looking around in awe.

Dorcas swung around and glared at them, rubbing her eyes. "I don't know! The door appeared and I went in and this was what was there! Where were you? You're thirty minutes late! I was wandering around, falling through trap doors and getting mauled by spells while you were gone!" She cried.

James rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't have gone in without us. We told you."

"No you didn't!" Dorcas shrieked.

"We didn't?" Sirius asked, frowning.

"I think she's right." Remus replied, glancing around.

"Well, then, don't go in here without us." Sirius said to Dorcas.

"Gee, thanks." Dorcas replied scathingly.

Peter looked around and glanced at his friends. "Maybe we should skip today?" He inquired.

Sirius and James exchanged a shrug. "Alright." James said.

"Let's go." Sirius began to turn away, but Dorcas cried out again.

"You're going to leave me here again?" She shrieked.

Remus raised his brows at his friends. "She _is_ helping us, you know."

"Fine." James sighed.

The Marauders all went in to get Dorcas. The floor promptly opened up beneath Sirius. A door next to Remus swung open, revealing Sirius, who toppled into Remus. Remus yelped and fell through another door in the floor. Then a ceiling door opened, letting Remus drop onto James. Luckily, however, James's Quidditch reflexes kicked in and he leapt to the side.

Chaos ensued as the Marauders tired to make their way across the room. Next Peter was falling continuously through a door from the floor to the ceiling, like a never-ending cycle.

This continued for who knows how long before someone came by.

Lily noticed a door where she was sure there hadn't been one before. Door was open, so she peered inside.

To her surprise, she found a room of doors. Huddling in the corner was her best friend. Meanwhile, a plump, blond Peter Pettigrew was flung from the ceiling to the floor and over again. Sirius and James were stumbling about, shamelessly falling through doors opening on the ground. Remus, on the other hand was carefully climbing from doorframe to doorframe, towards where Lily was. Sirius's robe caught on fire from a spell, and James attempted to douse them.

They hadn't noticed her presence yet.

Lily coughed and Dorcas whirled around. Lily was standing in the doorway of the door to the outside. Behind her stood a timid, and obviously confused fifth year Prefect from Gryffindor. Dorcas grinned at Lily.

"Lily!" She shrieked. "Save us!"

Lily stared for a moment, then flicked her wand as Peter, we was trapped in his perpetual falling cycle.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_."

Peter froze in the air, and Lily slowly brought him towards her, and then set him down outside. Next, she did Remus, while the Prefect had caught on and brought Dorcas, rather jerkily, through the air to the outside.

"Lily, love!" James called.

"Would you be a dear and save us?" Sirius called, just as he slipped through a door, and appeared out of one on the west side of the room.

"Not that we need help." James added.

Lily snorted. "Nah." She replied, sneering at them. "We'll see if you can get out yourselves. And if it takes you a while… Well, the school will be a better palce for a while, at least."

Lily slammed the door shut as she turned away. Lily missed their terrified faces, while Dorcas had not.

"Don't you think that was a bit harsh?" Dorcas asked Lily.

Lily snorted. "They'd deserve it."

Dorcas frowned and the Prefect looked nervously at the door. It seemed that she, too, had seen the faces of the two Marauders. Remus seemed a bit concerned, but he was busy helping Peter get his bearings.

Dorcas stared at the door for a while, as Lily began to help Peter to his feet. She could have sworn that she'd heard someone yelling… But no one else seemed noticed.

"Lily, I thought you were doing your homework by the lake?" Dorcas asked, as Lily and Remus began helping, or rather, dragging Peter to the Hospital Wing.

Lily looked at her curiously. "It's ten at night, that was hours ago, I'm on rounds…" Lily replied, looking at Dorcas, as if unsure of her sanity. "How long were you in there?"

Dorcas pressed her lips together and shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. How ha she noticed as the hours ticked by? Remus didn't seem bothered, and Peter was dead on his feet.

"What were you doing in there anyway?" Lily asked.

"I… Er- I'd never seen that door before… And… I took a look inside… And the door shut on me…" Dorcas began.

Lily blinked a couple times before turning to Remus. "Why were you guys in there?"

"We opened the door and saw Dorcas in there and tried to help, though I think our attempt failed." Remus replied, lying with practiced ease.

"Oh, they were helping? That's a first. I suppose I should have helped Potter and Black too, in that case. Oh well." Lily said airily.

"You don't sound all that concerned." Remus remarked dryly, raising a brow.

"I'm not."

"Of course you had to save me, right?"

"Of course. I'd be devastated if something happened to you." Lily replied, her face completely serious, though Dorcas could tell when Lily was joking. She was her best friend, after all.

"I'm touched."

Remus smiled and Lily smiled back, her cheeks slightly flushed. Dorcas assumed at the time, that it was from the strain of carrying chubby little Peter up the steps. He wasn't exactly as light as a feather.

-------

Lily was lying on her bed in the dorm as the morning light peeked in at the occupants. Dorcas lay in the bed next to her. Their other roommates consisted of Gloria Turner, Yolanda Winters, and Teresa Morningston. Gloria was a muggle-born, she was a rather shy, quiet girl, and seemed to admire Lily, though she appeared to be a loner. Meanwhile Yolanda Winters and Teresa Morningston were practically sisters. They were one of those pairs that were best friends since birth. Born to be best friends with each other.

It was actually rather eerie how they knew everything about each other. Sometimes they would say the exact same things at the exact same time. Like they had a wave link or something, or like twins separated at birth. Aside from that fact, though, they looked nothing alike in physical characteristics.

"How do you get up so early?" Teresa complained, brushing her short, strait blonde hair, as Gloria was already up and packing her bags.

"Well, I don't hit the snooze alarm five times." She commented softly, however, she was ignored.

Yolanda came up behind Teresa. She pulled out her wand and muttered a relaxing charm for her rich brown curls. Her hair was the kind you could only get from wearing hair curlers, with the fat curls like sausages. Yolanda was lucky enough to be born with it, though.

"Try waking-up Lily again, would you?" Yolanda asked Gloria, not taking her gaze away from her reflection.

Gloria glanced at them and gave Lily a tentative poke. When Lily simply swatted at her hand, she retreated like a frightened animal.

"Yeah, she'd be P.O.ed if we let her sleep in." Teresa added unnecessarily.

Yolanda rolled her eyes. Despite their freakish similarities, one of which included their personalities, Yolanda was more accustomed to letting profanities fly about, living with three brothers. Teresa, however, was raised to keep tongue in check, from her strict upbringing.

"Just say pissed off, Terri, God, we're not third year anymore."

Teresa ducked her head and retreated from the vanity mirror. She glanced at Gloria and rolled her eyes, her submissive act over. Evidently, Yolanda was watching in the mirror, and they rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Dorcas." Teresa commanded. "Wake-up."

Dorcas rolled over and said something into her pillow. Teresa prodded her with her hairbrush. Dorcas groaned and rolled back over, opening her eyes at Teresa.

"What?"

"Time to get up. Lily won't wake–up."

Dorcas muttered as she rolled off her bed and crawled over to Lily's. She stared at Lily before poking her a few times. Nothing happened. Dorcas blinked. Lily must have been really tired, considering they'd gotten back at nearly midnight. Dorcas continued poking her friend harder and harder, as well as faster, until Lily jumped and opened her eyes with a start. She stared at Dorcas, and then relaxed back into her pillows.

"God, why are you waking me up?" She groaned.

"Lily, it's almost seven thirty." Gloria commented, no one else seemed to hear her, but Lily sat up.

"Why didn't you guys wake me up?" Lily demanded as Dorcas went to the bathroom, clutching her robes.

Yolanda sighed and drew away from the mirror. "We just did."

Dorcas stuck her head out the door of the bathroom, her mouth dripped with toothpaste. "_I_ woke her up!"

"That's she meant by 'we' as in the collective." Teresa clarified unhelpfully.

"Besides, we woke _you_ up." Yolanda added, directing the comment at Dorcas, who sniffed disdainfully and retreated back into the bathroom. Technically, Teresa had woken Dorcas, but Yolanda and Teresa were practically the same person, so no one bothered to differentiate.

"Uhhhg." Lily groaned, rushing to get her things together.

Dorcas threw all her books into her bag, as usual, and was ready to go by the time Lily had finished brushing her hair.

"We're going!" Teresa announced.

"Lily, can I go? Or do you want me to wait?" Dorcas called to her friend.

Lily shook her head. "Go ahead!" She called.

Dorcas departed with Yolanda and Teresa, feeling extremely excluded from their conversation. Now Dorcas knew how Peter felt. Or even Gloria. They were such good friends that she could barely follow the conversation, which went as so:

"You wanna study?"

"At the usual place?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Don't forget-"

"I won't."

"Remember that one time?"

"Yeah. When you-"

"Yeah, but then you-"

It was then that Dorcas realized Gloria had earlier departed from the room without their notice.

-------

Dorcas entered the Great Hall and separated herself from the pair. Her gaze drifted about as she tried to find someone she could sit with. Finally, her gaze settled on Alice Hanser.

"Hey, Alice!" Dorcas called cheerfully. She would have sat with the Marauders, however, they were not down yet, and would probably appear late, as usual.

Alice looked surprised to see Dorcas approaching her. Probably because they weren't very close. Alice politely finished her conversation with a sixth year and turned to Dorcas, who sat down beside her.

"Hi, Dorcas, I haven't seen you around much. You're in my classes, aren't you?"

Dorcas smiled faintly, racking her brains for her classes with Alice. "I think I have all my classes with you except Divination and Ancient Runes… Don't I?"

Alice wrinkled her nose. "You take Divination?" She demanded indecorously. She quickly drew back and tried to straiten her face out into a smile again. "Sorry, I guess I've just never believed in that sort of stuff."

Dorcas frowned, a bit offended, but decided to not let it show. Alice _was_ a nice girl, according to the gossip chain of Hogwarts.

"Yeah, well, not all of us are gifted in this area, I guess. I think it's neat to see the future."

"Have you ever predicted something that came true?" Alice asked, apparently trying to make up for her slip. "I mean, you have to be pretty good to get through the O.W.L.s, right?"

Dorcas nodded. "I'm actually pretty good. I've had dreams about things mostly." Dorcas had realized a long time ago that her 'predictions' were mostly about Lily. Perhaps Lily had something big in store for her.

"Oh, really? That sounds neat." Alice replied.

Dorcas decided to relieve her of the subject. "Anyway, why aren't you doing Ancient Runes? I heard you were pretty good."

Alice shook her head. "Oh, no, I hear you're the top of the class. But I quit because I only got an Acceptable and you need an Exceeded Expectations on your O.W.L.s to take the class. Besides, I want to become an Auror, so you don't really need to be able to read old cryptograms, now do you?"

"But it would an interesting thing to put on your résumé, wouldn't it?" Dorcas offered.

Alice wrinkled her nose. "Then they'd trap me inside and force me to decode things for them. I want to go out and help people! Sitting inside all day and betting a numb bottom won't help very much, will it?"

Dorcas raised her brows. Alice was quite the Gryffindor. "You mean- you want to help fight… _You-know-who_?"

Alice nodded. Then she looked around and leaned forward. "I'm worried about a lot of people here, they're not safe."

Dorcas wrinkled her nose. "Hogwarts is the safest place in England! You have nothing to worry about! They'd never be able to get past the spells in this place! There's a bazillion, and they're practically a million years old."

"Well-" Alice was cut off as a very flushed Lily burst onto the scene. She plopped her books down across from them.

"Why didn't you wait for me?" Lily demanded crossly.

Dorcas raised her brows at Lily and was about to turn back to Alice, but she was already talking with the sixth year again.

-------

As it was, that evening, Dorcas found herself proven wrong.

Dorcas sat with Lily, eating her dinner as usual. She cast a wary glance down towards the Marauders, who were joking and laughing as usual. Peter caught her glare and told his friends to settled down. Lily, was glaring strait ahead, though Dorcas knew it was directed at the Marauders.

The foursome were laughing and jostling about a few frightened third years, which happened to have the misfortune to be sitting beside the rambunctious bunch. Peter alerted his friends to Lily's disapproval, but alas, no avail to settle them.

Dorcas decided to glare at them _for_ Lily, as Lily seemed to be trying to burn holes in the wall opposite her. However, Lily soon turned her gaze towards them as one of the third years yelped.

Dorcas turned away from them; Lily's glare would get the problem solved. If it didn't, Lily would go over there and scold them. She sighed and ran over her list of homework… Crap! Dorcas suddenly dove towards her bag ands started digging through it. She'd forgotten to get her outline back from Professor Werllis. She needed it to finish her essay on bewitchment curses.

She glanced anxiously towards the teacher's table. Her gaze scanned the row, and she realized that Professor Werllis's chair was empty.

Dorcas was busy contemplating this, when suddenly, the everlasting candles flickered out. Some people screamed, out of shock, as many people would scream from thunder or lightning. Dorcas was looking around curiously, blind as a bat in the perpetual darkness.

"_Lumos._" Came from up front, and Dumbledore held her wand near his face, peering into the darkness. It seemed to light almost everyone up in the dark hall. Suddenly, a Ravenclaw screamed again.

"The ceiling!" She shrieked, jabbing her finger into the air and leaping to her feet.

Almost everyone looked up. It was indeed a frightening sight. The ceiling was bare of the mystical sky spell, and was instead of high domed cathedral ceiling. Obviously the house elves didn't bother to clean up there, considering the massive amounts of spider webs coating the ceiling.

Dorcas glanced towards the teacher's table as McGonagal was conferring with Dumbledore, both seemed worried. Dumbledore began to step down from the table, when the door to the Great Hall burst open. Someone screamed again, but the person held a lit wand.

Dorcas gasped as she recognized Professor Werllis. His eyes were wide and he was gasping. The hand that held his wand was trembling, and he was some sort of shiny liquid dripping on the floor. Suddenly, a Hufflepuff screeched.

"He's bleeding!"

Dumbledore moved swiftly down the aisles, surprisingly quick for his age. He was soon standing beside Werllis, helping support him. He looked around and waved to the teacher's table as more began to hurry over. They crowded around, looking worried and whispering.

"Poppy!" Dumbledore called, and the other Professors moved aside for the Healer.

Madam Pomfrey pulled out her wand and muttered something. Professor Werllis coughed up some more blood before looking around warily. He gaze lit on Dumbledore.

"They've come!" He gasped. "I stopped them at the moats, but more are coming!" He groaned, and coughed again. "The protection spells… All spells are down."

"But Albus, you could light your wand." McGonagal began, but Dumbledore cut her off.

"No, I've heard of this spell before. It requires a great deal of time and materials, but it can be done. It cancels all spells placed before a set time…" Dumbledore's gaze traveled around the area.

"You mean the Terminalis spell?" Professor Flitwick hissed.

Dumbledore nodded.

"But that requires at least one hundred wizards!" McGonagal exclaimed.

"And you need _all_ the ingredients used to make wands for that spell!" Cried the potion's master, Professor Pulpus. "Where on earth did they get Phoenix feathers, or even Unicorn hair?"

Dumbeldore shook his head. "It doesn't matter, right now. What matters is that they're in the castle."

The teachers nodded.

"Students! We are under attack of Voldemort and his Death Eaters." Dumbledore announced, and someone nearby Dorcas flinched as the sound of the Dark Lord's name. Among others, whispering broke out. "But do not panic." Dumbledore continued. "We shall take care of it. Quickly! All to your dorms! The Heads are in charge until further notice! Stay in groups, do not stray off alone. Remember, there is strength in numbers! Prefects, please gather your houses and lead them to their dorms."

The Prefects quickly lit their wands. The children stood and began to pour out the halls, opposite the direction that Professors began to head in. Meanwhile, Madam Pomfrey had dragged Professor Werllis off to the side and was feeding him something. However, he continued to cough and groan.

Dorcas picked up her own wand and looked to Lily who still.

"Lily?"

No reply.

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes…"

"Are you scared?" Asked James, who'd approached once the others had left Dorcas and Lily. He raised his wand to his face, so the light was glinting off his glasses.

"Of course not." Lily snapped, standing up. "Let's go, Potter." She instructed. "Dorcas, go with Potter's friends."

Dorcas frowned at Lily, who was lighting her wand. "But we're supposed to stay in groups…"

"And you'll be in one." Lily replied briskly.

"Besides, I'll protect Lily." James interrupted, grinning.

Lily glared at him before setting off towards the crowd. "Get to your dorms!" She called at them.

"Don't be a prat, James." Dorcas instructed him. "And get over there or she'll get mad. Remember, love is like a mirror, anything you say will come back to haunt you, and everything looks backwards, in her view. Remember!"

James grinned at Dorcas before following Lily. Dorcas found herself surrounded by the remained Marauders, who were herding her towards the blob of students, their houses indistinguishable.

They were pushed and shoved along the halls, as some panicky students hurried ahead. Most of them had already lit their wands, but some terrified first years as resorted to attaching themselves to various upper years.

"Did you tell Prongs what to do?" Sirius asked.

Dorcas shrugged. "I told him to not be a prat."

"Some good that advice will do." Peter snorted.

Remus sighed. "Peter's right, James'll blow it. He can't tell prat from gentleman."

Suddenly, Sirius grabbed her arm and they herded down a separate hall from the cluster of students. Dorcas frowned and tugged her arm from his grasp.

"Why are we going with way? Everyone else is going that way." Dorcas said, glancing over her shoulder at the group.

"We're taking a short-cut." Sirius replied.

"I don't know-" Remus began, but was cut off.

"Are we taking the staircase behind the tapestry?" Peter inquired.

Sirius nodded. Dorcas sighed and followed the troupe towards their destination. They traveled in a slightly tense silence for a few minutes before Sirius froze. Dorcas bumped into him and '_Umph_'ed in annoyance. The others froze, too, staring at something ahead of them. Dorcas huffed angrily, trying to see over their shoulders.

"What's the matter with you gu-" Dorcas trailed off, staring and tight fear as the light from her wand struck something, lighting up the black cloak and white hooded Death Eater.

**

* * *

**

**AN:** There were a lot of characters introduced in this chapter. Try to remember them for future references. I suppose this is an all right chapter as far as chapters go.

**……: **Well '……' I am, frankly, rather annoyed with you. Considering you reviewed on my first chapter (which I know some people do), but I take it as a sign that you have not read my story at all. You simply saw Dorcas's name in the summary and decided to accuse me of plagiarism. I can say very nicely that you need to _read_ my story. As I said in an _earlier_ Author's Note, I told the origin or Dorcas's name. I have no idea who this 'Quizzila author' is, but I can say I've never heard of them, and I am certainly not plagiarizing off them. I am very offended that you would think that I'd sink so low as to do as such! I will say again, for your sake alone that Dorcas's name comes from the one and only J.K.R. Again, I say, yet again, that it comes from book five, and when Mad-Eye Moody is showing Harry a photo of the Order. Dorcas was a member of the Order, and she was mentioned. So far, that has been her only role. I deiced to expand upon her, since she seemed like an interesting character. So in short, I have not heard of 'rohanelf.' And I will raise an eyebrow in return. At least do the courtesy to read the story, and poke around on the web, if you had, you would have quickly learned this information. Though I doubt you'll even read this. Before you even mention any other characters, yes, Hestia Jones and Marlene McKinnon are from the book, too. I suppose the only reason you didn't question their names is because you did not read my story.

**Mrs.KristinePotter:** Sorry for replying to someone before you, but I was very annoyed. Anyway, thank you very much for another wonderful review! Yes, we will be seeing more of Hestia! She's going to become quite involved! I'm glad you find yourself making connects with my characters; it reassures me that they're realistic!

**Queenofdakittys:** Oh my! It could possibly be! Hmm… Plot development, yes?

**LadyJade: **Oh, thank you! I love hearing that my story is well written! Yes, I did think it'd be interesting to see through the eyes of someone else for a change. I did try to make Dorcas as interesting as possible, without making her have too much of a distracting life.

**Waterfaerie15: **I was wondering when someone would notice the chapter names! I thought they were neat, when I was writing it! Anyway, I hope you keep reading!

**Aladailey:** You really think so? I've tried to make them as close as I can to what I think they are, without making them too freakish. I glad they're perfect, now!


	5. Love is like Candy

**Love Meadowes: Love is like Candy**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter

Dorcas shrieked. Sirius snarled at her and slapped his hand over her mouth. Dorcas struggled to get free of him, but Sirius's grip held fast. Remus whipped her wand from his robes and brandished it at the Death Eaters.

"_Expellairmus!_" He shouted.

But the Death Eater yelled it at the same time, so both their wands were sent flying. The Death Eater's wand speared a painting of a ballroom; luckily, the inhabitants were quick enough to get out of the way. Unfortunately, Remus's wand landed near the Death Eater, who snatched it up. The others stared helplessly. Sirius raised his wand, but the Death Eater shouted something that sounded like muffled noise to Dorcas's ears. Sirius slumped to the ground like a heavy sack, knocking Dorcas back a step.

It occurred to Dorcas that she and Peter were the only ones who had means of defense. Dorcas looked around in panic, fear rising in her. She tried to shove her wand into Remus's hand, who pushed it away in confusion, looking at her oddly.

Peter was standing stock still, cowering slightly behind Dorcas and Remus. The Death Eater raised his wand once again and a purple fire lashed out from it. Dorcas tried to find some sort of spell, but her mind was completely blank with fear, and only managed a strangled scream.

Suddenly, there was someone in front of her, roughly pushing her back, and she stumbled into Peter. Dorcas accidentally stepped on Sirius's fingers, but he didn't stir. She looked at Siris, worried, then looked to see whom their defender was.

It was Professor Werllis.

He was wheezing and clutching his side, where blood was leaking through his fingers. His wand was pointed shakily at the Death Eater, whose spell was countered. Werllis jabbed his wand forward suddenly, hissing something between his clenched teeth, and the Death Eather froze. The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher sighed and lowered his wand. He muttered to himself as he limped around to face the students, who watched him in wide-eyed shock.

"Hurry." He grunted. "Get your wand, boy." He added, to Remus. Then he turned to prod Siruis, who was still slumped on the ground. With a terrible amount of effort, Professor Werllis leaned down and felt Sirius's pulse. He straitened with a groan, but looking slightly relieved. "Carry him on up. He'll wake up in a few hours. Go!" He jabbed his wand in the direction of the Death Eater. "He'll be able to move, soon!"

Peter was gesturing wildly, while holding back a tapestry of a lion fighting with a snake. Remus hauled Sirius up, and the larger boy dangled off him. Dorcas tried to get the other side, but she was shorter than Remus, and much weaker, so Sirius would have been in a rather painful position, had he been awake. Professor Werliis remained at the bottom of the hidden staircase, watching.

To Dorcas's surprise, they appeared outside the entrance. Dorcas looked back, and saw that they were emerging from behind a strange stone carving, in the wall. The Fat Lady was sitting in her frame with her friend, Violet. The two witches appeared frightened. The Fat Lady called out loudly at them.

"Who goes there?" She sounded frightened.

"Just us." Peter replied, looking nervous.

Dorcas raised her wand, lighting up their faces, and the Fat Lady looked at them suspiciously.

"Password?"

"Floo Furnace." Remus said.

The Fat Lady swung aside and the four hurried in. Dorcas narrowed her eyes at the boys, who were weezing under Sirius's weight. They grinned half-heartedly at her, waving as they went up the steps to their dorm. Dorcas did the same. Just before entering her room, she glanced back down at the empty, dark common room. It seemed a bit… Frightening once she was alone, with only the dim glitter of her wand.

-------

When Dorcas arrived at her dorm, there was an unpleasant surprise waiting. Lily sat on her bunk, glowering at Dorcas as she entered. Their other roommates seemed to be in fitful slumbers.

"Where were you?" Lily hissed. "I covered for you _this one time_. But you need to tell me where you were! I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with Potter's horrible little friends!"

"It's not their fault!" Dorcas objected. "It's mine… I… Er- wanted to… I needed…. To go to the bathroom!"

"There's one up here!" Lily exclaimed. "Couldn't you have waited till you got back?"

"Lily!" Dorcas complained in a whining tone. "I was going to pee my pants! I was really scared, too!"

Lily glowered at her. Dorcas looked back innocently. Finally, Lily sighed and turned away, accepting her story. Dorcas sighed and flopped down in her bed without bothering to get ready or change from her robes. She noticed that she'd gotten quite good at making up lies on the spot.

At least Lily wouldn't know what _really_ happened. Then she'd flip out.

Dorcas lay in her bed, but couldn't go to sleep. She could hear the yelling outside. There was shouting. Screams. Dorcas shivered and curling into a ball, shutting her eyes tightly. Weren't Gryffindors supposed to be brave?

-------

Unfortunately, Dorcas's fib did not follow through the next morning. Apparently, the situation was still unstable, so the entrances to all the common rooms were on lockdown. A very frightened looking house elf informed them that their breakfast would be arriving shortly, as a mob of hungry (male) students attacked it.

As Dorcas entered the room with Lily, she noticed a larger than usual crowd around the Marauders. And there were many whispers going about. Even some people were pointing at Dorcas. What was it? Did she have a sign on her back or something? Was there gum in her hair? She was too tired, having not slept much last night.

"What's going on?" Lily asked, glancing around and noticing the same things as Dorcas.

"I don't know." Dorcas replied.

They approached the group around the Marauders. Dorcas tapped someone on the shoulder.

"What's going on?" Lily asked before Dorcas could.

The third-year looked startled. He blinked a couple times before replying.

"Sirius is telling everyone about a fight they had with a Death Eater last night." The boy replied.

"What?" Lily replied sharply. "They were with you, weren't they?" Lily said, turning to Dorcas.

Dorcas's jaw dropped. They were spouting it all around school? What were they thinking? There was no fight! They'd just run into one! Dorcas shoved her way through the crowd, marching up to the foursome, who sat on the table, happily soaking up the attention.

"What are you doing?" She screeched.

Several people looked at her, only one of them being a Marauder, which happened to be Remus. Remus nudged Sirius, who was going on about something. Sirius scowled, obviously annoyed at the interruption. Remus sighed and pointed at Dorcas. Dorcas glared at them indignantly, hands planted on her hips.

"Ah!" Sirius said loudly. "It's the maiden in distress herself!"

"What!" Dorcas screeched as people before looking at her. "What have you been telling everyone, Sirius?" She cried.

"Lies, of course." Remus said dryly.

Sirius glared at him before turning regally back to Dorcas. "I was simply telling them of my fabulous battle with the dung-bag Death Eater, who threatened my friends, as well as a helpless female."

"You have no right, Sirius Black!" Dorcas exclaimed. You were bloody _asleep_ for practically the whole thing!"

"I was not!" Sirius replied, puffing up indignantly.

Peter snickered, obviously taking pleasure in Dorcas calling Sirius's bluff, despite the fact that he'd been telling the false story right along with him, involving him tackling the Death Eater.

"My fans would much rather hear my heroic tale." Sirius informed them. "Your story is completely boring"

"And completely true, but don't worry, Black." Lily said coolly, sliding up beside Dorcas. Lily, being the fabulous friend she was, helped Dorcas. "I'm sure your legions of fans would love you _just_ as much if you were describing your sleeping patterns."

A nearby girl actually sighed. Then another clambered over to Dorcas, shoving others out of the way. She looked at Dorcas wide-eyed.

"You got to see _Siruis Black_ sleeping?" She exclaimed, half question, half statement.

"Eh?" Dorcas replied, backing away from the girl.

Lily grabbed Dorcas's arm and dragged her away from the crowd, who watched them for a moment before returning their attentions to the king crows, cackling on the tabletop. Even James was adding his own narration, without even being there.

Lily stopped once they were far enough away to not hear the Marauders anymore. She released Dorcas and stepped back, facing her. She sighed and looked at a nearby book while she spoke.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

Dorcas bit her lip, averting her gaze, too. "I- Well… I just… Didn't know… I didn't… I didn't want to get anyone in trouble." She replied at last.

Lily frowned and looked at Dorcas. "Do you not trust me? Just because I'm Head Girl now doesn't mean I won't still be your friend. I said I'd cover for you."

Dorcas shook her head. "You'd cover for _me_. You'd still turn in Sirius, Remus, and Peter. It wasn't really their fault… I don't know. You just don't seem to trust them a whole lot, and I didn't want to make it worse."

"Well, obviously I don't trust them with good reason! There's no point in hiding their bad traits from me, just so I'll get a good impression." Lily sighed, glancing towards the foursome again. "Last night Potter was being unbearable. He was treating me like I couldn't do anything myself. Like he was trying to be a gentleman, but in the end he was just some bloke who was stealing all the attention, he was constantly following me around like a lost puppy, but he wouldn't do anything I told him to! He would not stop bothering me and kept going on and on, babbling, I don't really remember what it was about, I'd stopped listening. He didn't even notice, I bet he just likes listening to himself talk. So, tell me why you think I've got the wrong impression."

Dorcas bit her lip again. "Erm… Well… You haven't given the real James a chance?" She offered. "He only acts like that because he's… Let's say, overly fond of you."

Lily rolled her eyes. "He's a bloody stalker." She deadpanned.

Dorcas would later stop to wonder about Lily's new cursing phase. "Well, I don't know about that. I doubt he knows you even have siblings, or what city you live in." Dorcas replied, shrugging. It was rather disappointing how little James knew about his infatuation. In Dorcas's favorite smut book, the hero had some weird mind link with the heroine, so they perfect for each other or something like that. In tune? Brainwaves? Something that had to do with the supernatural… Dorcas made a note to re-read that book again.

Lily snorted and began to stalk away before halting again. She groaned. "Great. Did I get up for no reason? We probably won't have any classes today if we're locked in the tower!"

Lily began to stalk away and Dorcas watched her go, head cocked. Then she hopped after Lily, feeling oddly cheerful, probably because Lily was acting so miserable and annoyed.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to bed." Lily snapped. "Gloria had the right idea, sleeping in."

"Gloria slept in?" Dorcas replied, surprised. She hadn't even noticed the girl was still in the room when she woke up.

"You could pretend to notice, you know."

"Sorry. Here, how's this: of course I knew Gloria slept in."

"Better."

-------

Dorcas took it upon herself to drag the Marauders away from their fans. She gathered them on the couches of the common room, which had become loud and noisy as the cooped up students became restless. Dorcas settled in an armchair and surveyed the foursome.

"I'll have you know that Lily is now rather angry at me and it's all your fault. Faults. Uggh. It's early."

"What did we do?" Peter objected.

"You told the whole blasted house about last night, when I already made a little white lie, saying I had to go to the bathroom, which was why I was so late getting to the dorm." Dorcas snapped.

"So are you just going to lecture us?" James said lazily.

"The way I see it, it's your fault for lying to Lily." Sirius quipped.

Dorcas glared. "Well, I lie to Lily all the time, now, thanks to you people!"

"You're welcome." Remus replied, sounding polite and completely serious. "Which reminds me…" He continued thoughtfully. "I ran into Lily a couple days ago…"

"Yes? And?" Dorcas prompted.

"She was awfully strange. Has she been all right? I bumped into her and at first she didn't drop anything, and apologizing and the usual Lily things, but then she looked up and dropped all her books. Her face was pretty red and I thought she might have a fever, but she said she was fine."

Dorcas leaned back in her chair, frowning. "No… She hasn't been sick lately… She was pretty funny this one time…" Dorcas continued, thinking of the time they discussed why she referred to her current company by surname.

Sirius frowned, as if he almost knew what was going on, but didn't know exactly. He pressed his lips together thoughtfully. Meanwhile Peter's eyes had lit with rare recognition. He blinked at them all, as none of the others seemed to see it.

"I-I think w-we might have a-a p-problem." He stuttered nervously.

"What are you talking about?" James snapped.

Peter retreated. "Nothing, nothing."

"Well, I'll see what I can learn about this." Dorcas began to get up then she noticed a colorful sign beside the Portrait hole. She sat back down again abruptly. She looked at them narrowly.

"Do you know what next weekend is?"

"Marlene McKinnon's birthday?" Remus replied, glancing at his watch.

"Is it? Oh, yes, Lily told me. Didn't she want to do some sort of little surprise thing in for all the Prefects who have their birthdays coming up? Oh, Anyway, it's Hogsmead, too. That was the point." Dorcas informed them. "As said in our agreement, you _must_ pay me fifty galleons before the first Hogsmead trip."

"Bloody hell, I don't carry around that much!" James cried.

"Why not? You're completely loaded! Fifty galleons is no skin off your back!" Dorcas exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, Prongs does not have total control over the Potter fortune in its entirety. Only a small portion that consists of two galleons for every good grade." Sirius informed her.

"I told you she wouldn't forget." Remus commented, and Sirius shrugged.

Peter glanced between them. "James, can't you just, I don't know, _borrow_ money from some store that you have credits at?"

"It doesn't work like that." Remus explained patiently.

James groaned. Sirius seemed to find the entire situation hilarious, as he was grinning from ear to ear. Dorcas looked at them all, then stood.

"Good day to you, sirs." She said politely. She began heading up the staircase for the girl's dormitories. She sighed, glancing at the sleeping forms of Gloria and Lily.

-------

Around five in the afternoon, the teachers had decided that the school was free of any Death Eaters. They released the children from their common rooms, calling them all to the Great Hall. As they settled, the teachers looked down expectantly.

The Great Hall had been restored to its former glory, the glittering twilight once again shining down on them from the roof. The candles were lit again, floating magically. The staircases began to move again, and everything seemed exactly as they'd left it. There were no scorch marks, no blood, no broken or shattered objects. No signs of a battle.

Dorcas settled in beside Lily and a third year. The third year was whispering with her friend, and Dorcas couldn't help hearing what they were talking about.

"I wonder what happened."

"I heard that only a few Death Eaters got past the gates."

"I think some of the teachers were hurt. Look, Professor Pallpus is missing."

"Oh my gosh! You're right! Who's going to teacher Potions now?"

Dorcas stopped eavesdropping to glance at the teacher's table. Indeed, many seats were empty. Dorcas nudged Lily, who still seemed to be half asleep.

"Look, some of the teachers are missing."

Lily looked towards the table too, blinking a couple times. "I hope they're alright." She said drowsily.

Her question would soon be answered. The chatter stopped as soon as Dumbledore, stood, clearing his throat. He looked down at his students somewhat grimly.

"Students, I'm sure you are all nervous or frightened over this attack. I reassure you that no Death Eaters entered the building." Dorcas knew it was a lie, but from Dumbledore it sounded true. Dorcas almost believed him, and she would have if she had not seen the Death Eater with her own eyes.

Dumbledore continued. "The castle is once again secure. We have revived all neutralized spells, and everything is all right. We will take a short break from classes to allow our wounded teachers to recover." A few whispers went around as Dumbledore paused, surveying everyone. "Professor Pullpus was gravely wounded in battle. He will continue teaching for the rest of the year, but will retire next year." Dumbledore said slowly. "However, we have some less fortunate, who are no longer among us. Professor Judiscs has fallen in battle. He was valiantly protecting the gates, and sacrificed himself to help save you all."

The room was almost completely silent, except for a nearby Hufflepuff, whom Dorcas heard whisperer, "I knew Arithmancy wouldn't do you any good in real life."

Dorcas ignored them as Dumbledore continued, "Also, we have lost Professor Werllis. He was gravely wounded earlier when he came to warn us of the attack, and he fell in battle, as well. Their memories shall live with us, and watch over us in this time of need. We must be strong and stand united, not divined. We must believe in one another and keep hope in our hearts. For every rise, there is a fall."

There was silence after Dumbledore's speech. Dorcas couldn't grasp her mind around the concept of Professor Werllis. Dead. She'd seen him, protecting them from the Death Eater who had slipped inside. He was alive and well, actually, he'd been bleeding pretty badly… and… Dorcas felt dread filling her. Had Professor Werllis sacrificed himself for them last night? Had he died at the foot of the hidden staircase, while they ran?

Dorcas once again doubted her qualifications for Gryffindor. Now she knew why she wasn't a Prefect. Well, at least why she wasn't a _Gryffindor_ Prefect. Lily was Head Girl, because she was brave, and smart, and knew right from wrong. Lily was so… Disgustingly perfect… Why couldn't Dorcas be like Lily?

-------

Two days later, James approached Dorcas with Sirius and Peter in tow. Dorcas glanced around, making sure there was no Lily in the vicinity. Luckily, Lily was off tutoring some third year. Apparently she'd set it up and Remus would be there, too. James was carrying a small bag.

"Is that my payment?" Dorcas asked, poking the small bag.

James shrugged. "It's about a fifth of it."

Dorcas frowned, pursing her lips. "No payment, no classes."

James sighed, running his hand through his absently. He seemed unusually subdued

"Don't do that." Dorcas instructed him. "Lily hates it." Despite Dorcas telling him to stop, she rather liked the gesture. The heroes in her books would rumple their hair. However, their hair usually ended up looking _neater_ rather than messier.

James's hand abruptly left his hair. Sirius stepped forward and grabbed the small sack from James, who's reactions were unusually slow. He leaned forward, towards Dorcas, as if telling her a secret.

"This is all we've got so far. How about we pay you in small payments? How's that?" He asked, eyes twinkling as he jingled the contents of the bag. The coins clinked noisily.

"No deal." Dorcas snapped. "All or nothing."

"Well then," he said straightening. "We'll be going now, right guys? Nothing for you, miss 'all or nothing'."

Peter nodded, eager to please, while James sulked gloomily. They began to leave, when it occurred to Dorcas that now she had _no_ money to spend at Hogsmead. She sighed and trotted after them.

"Wait!"

Sirius smirked, turning back around. "I knew you'd see it my way."

Dorcas glowered at him. "Give me the bloodly money and get out of my face." She snapped, snatching the bag from his hand. Dorcas turned and walked away, off to do her homework… Somewhere… Yeah, okay, she was just stalking off and acting annoyed.

As she was leaving, she heard Peter murmuring to Sirius.

"Are you sure that was worth it?"

"Of course."

"But Prongs asked her to Hogsmead and she turned him down. How do you know it's working?"

"We can't expect to Prongs to bag Lily already. She'd make it too easy. She's a stubborn bird."

"If you say so. But expect to get my two galleons back." Peter replied suspiciously.

"You really think that he'll ever pay you back?" James replied. Sirius grinned.

-------

Dorcas was sitting in her dorm, reading her book about the mind-link thing. It was rather good. Good enough to read again, but not to recommend to Lily, whose standards were far above most of Dorcas's books. Dorcas was lying on her stomach, having left the three Marauders an hour or so ago.

Suddenly, the door to the dorm room burst open. A red-haired demon dashed into the room. She landed on Lily's bed, bouncing on the creaking and straining mattress as she reached beneath the mattress. She pulled out a small red notebook with a red quill carefully tucked inside.

Lily dabbed it in the open inkwell she always kept on her bedside table, then began scribbling away furiously in the little red book. Curiously, Dorcas set her book down, marking the mark by folding the corner of it. She stared at Lily for a while, who continued to ignore Dorcas.

"Lily?"

Lily jumped, as if surprised to see Dorcas there. Her gaze darted about nervously as she shut the small book with a snap. Lily quickly stashed it under her pillow.

"Dorcas!" Lily said brightly, as if trying to hide the fact she was hiding the book. "How long have you been there?"

"An hour or so?"

"Oh... Well…"

"Lily… Was that a… Diary?" Dorcas asked slowly.

Lily pressed her lips together nervously. "Erm… No… It's a… Day planner! Yeah…"

Dorcas raised her brows. "Then why are you hiding it?"

"I'm not!" Lily objected.

"Riiiight." Dorcas replied. "I didn't know you kept a Diary. I haven't had one of those since I was ten."

Lily looked defensive suddenly. "There's nothing wrong with a diary! I've just gotten it, and I've only been writing in it when I really need to get out some feelings."

"What feelings would those be?"

Lily stiffened. "Stress." She replied after a moment.

"Stress? Over what, Lily? It's the first _month_ there's practically nothing stressful about it."

"What about yesterday?"

"That was _scary_ not stressful."

"Well, you're not Head Girl!" Lily snapped, suddenly standing. She walked out the room, slamming the door behind her. Dorcas stared. What had gotten her so worked up?

Dorcas shrugged and was about to resume her reading again when she noticed that Lily's diary was still tucked under her pillow. Dorcas froze for a moment, wondering what she should do. Put it back under the mattress? Or… The five galleons were sitting on her bedside table, reminding her.

Should she look at the diary? For the sake of her mission to make James a better person? It would be an awful invasion of privacy. And Lily would be furious if she found out… Then again, Lily couldn't really be writing about anything particularly interesting about stress…

Dorcas cautiously slipped over to pick up the book. She felt nervous, as if Lily would suddenly burst into the room. Dorcas sat back down on her bed. After a moment on consideration, she slipped the small diary into her book.

Dorcas opened it a page in about the middle. She glanced at it casually, realizing that the entry was only from a week ago. Dorcas was about to read when she heard footsteps. She froze. Was Lily back? No… The footsteps passed. Dorcas began to read.

_I ran into Remus today. It was totally and accident! I was walking down the hall with a whole bunch of books, some of which were for Dorcas, since she's too lazy to go get them herself. Of course, they're checked out under my name, and I'll get a fine when Dorcas forgets to give them back. Anyway, I dropped all my books and I think one even landed on Remus's foot. God, I was so nasty and yelled at him before I knew who it was! Oh… I was _so_ embarrassed! He must have thought I was some catty witch! Er… Bitch.It's all so confusing! Seven years, and I still can't remember I'm a witch._

_I swear, Remus is so sweet. I apologized profusely, and he was so nice about it. He said it was all right, and he helped me pick up my books. Then he offered to help carry them for me! Well, I was embarrassed enough for today, so I said no. I don't think I would have been able to keep up an intelligent conversation with him. My face was probably soo red!_

_I can't believe myself! I'm such a klutz around him! He's always around when I'm in a bad mood, or when I just happen to be saying something nasty! I don't know, I guess he always catches me at a bad time. I wish he'd ask me to Hogsmead, but he's such a good friend, even if his friends are horrible. He'd probably never ask me because of Potter. God. I hate him; he's always ruining everything for me._

_Dorcas says that Potter and his friends are nice and funny if you get to know them. She's been spending an awful lot of time with them lately. I guess I'm kind of lonely. I don't know, she's not being a bad friend; I'm just being a nasty, jealous person. I have other friends, so why can't Dorcas? I've been really mean lately. I hope it's just stress. I don't want to be stuck this way forever! I think my temper is shorter than ever, Mum always said it was shorter than everyone else's, already! I don't think Dorcas has noticed anything strange. She never was a very attentive one._

_Oh god. I feel so embarrassed around Remus all the time. He's so perfect. It's so stupid; I'm thinking of him so much that I'm beginning to feel like some stupid lovesick girl, like in Dorcas's books. I don't understand how she reads that junk._

_It's dinner. Hopefully Dorcas can sit by me today. She's been spending a lot of time with Remus, too. Well, all the Marauders. I wonder if she can put in a good word for me? Oh, but that'd been too embarrassing to ask! And I'm sure Potter is already gushing about me all the time. Oh, and that was _not_ me being arrogant, that was me simply stating a fact._

Dorca shut the diary with a snap, as the footsteps grew louder. Dorcas hurriedly shoved the red quill back in and stuffed the notebook messily under Lily's mattress. Dorcas flopped on her bed, which creaked nosily. The door opened to reveal Gloria, to Dorcas's relief.

Dorcas sighed, diving back into her book. Serna was wondering how Ken could be so perfect… Wait a second! Lily liked Remus!

Love was like candy. It could be so sweet, and sometimes it could be so sour.

**

* * *

AN: I'm sorry the action wasn't for very long. I promise there will be more, but everything happens for a reason in my story. I'm also sorry it's taking me so long to update. I went on vacation for ten days, (no internet/computer) so I wasted that time from my story. Hey, with the new organization of FF, I found out that Loving Meadowes is in a Community!** I'm sorry the action wasn't for very long. I promise there will be more, but everything happens for a reason in my story. I'm also sorry it's taking me so long to update. I went on vacation for ten days, (no internet/computer) so I wasted that time from my story. Hey, with the new organization of FF, I found out that is in a Community! 

**Alana-Lou:** Aww… Teresa, Yolanda, and Gloria love you too! Oh, and Lily and Dorcas. I'm sorry the suspense was a bit of a bust. I don't know, that's what I thought it was. I'm afraid Dorcas hasn't got much Girl Power. Poor her. Sisters. Ptahh. Lily's is a bitch. Dorcas is an only child, but we'll meet some of Yolanda's relatives. I think.

**Tangerine-y:** I know! Seriously, I can't believe someone actually thought I was copying off a _Quizilla Quiz!_

**Luvin' it:** Thanks for your support! I'm sorry this chapter took soooo long to get out.

**Aladailey:** Oohh, making predictions now, are we? We'll just have to wait and see. Everything is already planned out in my mind, but you all shall have to wait! And SHH! Don't spill the beans about Dorcas… Even if people can go read it themselves… Don't spill the beans for the lazy people! That's the special reason I chose Dorcas to be Lily's bestest friend in the world. Plus she has the coolest name.

**Auburgine: **I'm glad Dorcas is such a hit! I know, poor kid, eh? And Lily was so cruel to James and Sirius. Oh well. And thanks for catching that. I seriously need a beta! I was first having him just coming out, but then I deiced that'd make it really boring. It should be fixed by the time you read this.

**Mrs.KristinePotter:** Yes. Every character has a semi-important role. MUAHAHAHA! So many to remember! I even forgot Yolanda's name a second ago…

**KHdreamer: **Do, read on! I'm glad I've been attracting so many fans! Later: I'm writing! YAY! You liked the mental image, then? Sometimes I wonder if I'm not descriptive enough.

**Kitschy Kitty: **You think so? I've been working pretty hard on this story! I'm pleased to see people are enjoying it so much.

**Liz the Laugh:** Out loud? Really? I very rarely do that! I'm never sure if my material is funny enough or not, it's reassuring to hear you enjoyed it.

**Queenofdakittys:** It's getting more interesting, indeed! I'm sorry it slows down a bit after this, but it'll all have a purpose in the end. –disappears in a mysterious puff of smoke-

**Soft N' fluffy:** I hope it gets more interesting. The beginnings of stories are always rather slow, don't you think?


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